Sinthia Hoque:-As of tomorrow, Toronto residents aged 70 and above will be able to book an appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at a city-run clinic.
The change was announced on Friday by Mayor John Tory, as he said that 30,000 vaccination appointments are still available next week, at a city-run clinic.
“If you’re eligible please sign up. This is the most useful contribution you can make on the front lines. Not in months or in weeks but now”, said Tory. “This is a battle we must win and it is a battle we will win but we need your help signing up and persuading others to sign up and we need that help now”.
Though appointments have only been available to residents aged 75 and above in Toronto, some public health units have already started to administer vaccines to residents aged 70 and above.
The city prepares to open two additional vaccination sites on Monday, bringing the total number of clinics to five.
A sixth clinic in Toronto at The Hangar, located in North York is expected to open on April 5th.
“We are starting to ramp up our clinic capacity. We are vaccinating thousands a day but we now have the capacity for more and we need you to use that capacity”, said Tory. “In our original three clinics we were previously able to vaccinate 1, 350 per day. Starting Monday we will be able to vaccinate 6, 300 people per day”.
Though appointments have been regularly booked up across the city, there has been trouble filling some appointments due to a recent increase in supply.
Despite COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rising, only about 68 per cent of available appointments at the Metro Convention Centre have been spoken for on Friday morning, causing a fear that some appointments may go unfilled.
In a statement Tory tells reporters that it may possible that due those who are unaware of the increase in capacity, it may have made it easier for residents to receive their vaccine’s. He is asking residents to sign themselves up and ask their loved ones to the same.
More than 1.7 million individual doses have been administered in Ontario, with more than 436, 000 doses administered in Toronto.
Phase two of the vaccine rollout is expected to begin next week, and the eligibility list expected to expand and include some essential workers, as well as those with pre-existing conditions.
News source: CP24
