Some police officers at the North Bay Police Service (NBPS) have begun receiving their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Under the province’s vaccine rollout, frontline police officers who have regular interaction with the public have been identified as a priority group for vaccinations.
Scott Tod, chief of the NBPS, says it’s a sigh of relief for some of his frontline officers.
“It provides a level of assurance for most of our members who will be receiving the vaccine, but I hope that it also provides a level of assurance to the public that the officers they’ll be seeing in the community will have their first dose,” he said.
“We enter so many homes, we enter so many businesses, we deal with so many people across our community every single day,” Tod added. “The potential to infect or be infected certainly is always there.”
It comes as the police service will be helping out with the local vaccine distribution. Tod says his officers will help the OPP with security for the vaccine shipments, as well as at the mass vaccination site at Memorial Gardens beginning Monday.
“Our experiences in the community in regards to the COVID response from our citizens is that we don’t anticipate any issues at the vaccination centre or the security and administration of the vaccine,” Tod assured.
When vaccines first became available in December, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) identified vaccine shipments as a potential target for organized crime.
Tod says the province’s Vaccine Distribution Task Force, which includes security, has deemed the possibility of criminal involvement in vaccine shipments “low” but not zero.
“The potential is always there for other types of criminal events to happen around vaccine administration, distribution and manufacturing,” he said.
Residents over the age of 80 will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines next week.
