Sinthia Hoque:- In a news release on Sunday, Toronto Public Health has confirmed that hospitals and community health partners will be administrating the COVID-19 vaccines to those experiencing homelessness, starting next week. The group had already been identified by the province as a priority population during phase one of the vaccination group.
The city plans to start off with shelters that are at the highest risks of an outbreak and will continue to expand as more vaccines arrive in Toronto.
In a written statement released on Sunday, Mayor John Tory says, “ We are doing everything we can to support the provincial and federal government in the vaccine rollout. We are working to vaccinate those at highest risk in our city as quickly as possible”, further stating, “This work will ramp up in the coming weeks as we receive more vaccine from the Government of Canada and it won’t stop until every Toronto resident who wants a vaccine has been vaccinated”.
City staff says, work continues to vaccinate all first responders and those aged 80 and over will be next in line to receive their first shot as more vaccines become available.
Starting March 15th, elderly residents will be able to book an appointment to receive the vaccination and when the appointment portal launches next month, those who are not yet eligible are urged to stay off the portal until it is their turn.
According to a written statement by Dr. Eileen De Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, the vaccines seem a to be promising for the protection from the virus. “Vaccination is resuming in earnest in Toronto, already we are seeing promising responses to the vaccines in those who’ve been vaccinated in other parts of the world. Declining rates of illness in our own residents of long term care in Toronto are showing how much protection the vaccine provides”.
“A vaccinated Toronto is the foundation of the return to so many of the things we miss about life before COVID-19. As a Medical Officer of Health, I ask you to get your vaccination when your turn comes and, in the meantime, to keep practicing the steps for self-protection that are the best protection for the unvaccinated, which for the time being is most of us”, she states.
News source: cp24
