The province says some health care workers, including those in long term care, will get their second shot of their COVID-19 vaccine earlier than first expected. And that could mean more seniors in care will have a little more freedom sooner.

The makers of the vaccine had said people should receive the second dose of the vaccine after 21 days. But after Health Canada gave the okay, province began delaying the second dose to up to four months. Vaccine was in short supply and health officials wanted to cover as many people as quickly as possible.

In Lambton, only residents of long term care had been given a second dose in the recommended time frame.

Families worried that would have an impact on the freedom of residents in the home. The province had loosened some of the tight regulations in long term care, but only when both the residents and the staff had been fully vaccinated.

In Lambton, where most long term care workers did not start getting their first vaccine until mid February, that meant most homes would not be able to open up to visitors until July.

But today, the province announced a number health care workers and at risk patients are now eligible for their second dose earlier including

• -Transplant recipients
• -Dialysis patients
• -High-risk healthcare workers including those in long term care,
• paramedics,
• people working in home care serving seniors
• hospital acute care workers and
• health care workers in the COVID-19 response directly dealing with patients

Health care workers should be able to book an appointment by the end of the week and provincial officials say more details are to come.