Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) has received the freezers it needs to store COVID-19 vaccines when they arrive.
To be able to safely store the vaccines from Pfizer, the hospital has purchased three, -80 degree Celsius freezers and four, -25 degree Celsius freezers for the Moderna vaccine.
Hospital CEO David Musyj says as soon as they heard what the requirements were, they got to work.
"We have one but it's already in use and then the university had some but they're already in use. You need a brand new freezer that's never stored anything before, so literally that day, we made some immediate calls and found out we needed to procure brand news ones and we did."
Because we don't know yet how the vaccines will be distributed, Musyj says they made sure to get enough for the Erie-St Clair region.
And if for some reason Chatham requires one, we could easily put it in a truck, plug it in, send it with the vaccines to Chatham, if that's the way it has to be distributed and Chatham can use one of these freezers as well."
When it comes to cost, Musyj says all seven freezers were upwards of $200,000.
"Our approach all the way along is you buy it now and worry about being funded later," he says. "The province has always promised, and they have fulfilled it, to reimburse us COVID expenses."
Just announced on Friday, the Ontario government has appointed nine people to its new COVID-19 vaccine panel which will oversee distribution of the vaccine when available.