Paramedics in Lambton County will be testing the province’s new online immunization booking system.

Lambton is one of six health units involved in test runs of the provincial website which is slated to go live the week of March 15.

The province has been criticized for the slow rollout of the booking system as several provinces already have theirs up and running. Ontario officials want to avoid a repeat of what happened in Alberta where one minute after the online booking system opened, it crashed. Phone lines then became jammed.

Starting today, paramedics can book their tests on the provincial system, according to Lambton Public Health.

They’ll be getting the COVID-19 vaccine at either the Point Edward Arena or the Wyoming Fairgrounds between March 5 and 11.

Public health is also training its staff and reading its own local call center for the larger priority groups and when more vaccines become available. Right now, public health is only reaching out to small groups of people to vaccinate them, due to limited vaccine supply.

Meantime, Lambton has seen an upswing in the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19. There are now 98 people actively ill in the region with 22 new cases reported Friday, 16 reported Saturday and seven reported Sunday. There have now been 2,105 cases in Lambton since the pandemic began.

There are several cases of COVID-19 in local schools. One staff member at Col. Cameron School and two students at St. Joseph’s School both in Corunna.

Two students at Holy Rosary School in Wyoming are COVID-19 positive. And there are five cases in schools in Sarnia and Forest. Across Ontario, 10 per cent of the schools are reporting active cases of COVID-19. Twenty have been closed.

Loblaws reports there were two staff members at Heidi’s Independent test positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 28. The last day the team members worked was Feb. 22 and 24.

And there has been an outbreak at the Inn of the Good Shepherd’s Shelter with three staff and three residents testing positive.

Ontario is reporting 1023 new COVID-19 cases today. There were six deaths, bringing the total to 6,986.