Sinthia Hoque:-Toronto will have more than 350 different sites administrating COVID-19 vaccination shots, once more supply arrives.
Locations of nine city-operated vaccination clinics were previously released by Toronto officials.
During a briefing on Monday, Mayor John Tory had provided information concerning the wider vaccination network, which will help 2.93 million people residing in the city to receive the vaccination.
Along with the nine city-operated clinics, the network will also include 49 sites operated by hospitals, 46 sites operated by community health centres and 249 sites operated by pharmacies.
In the briefing, Mayor John Tory mentions, “This is a team effort and I believe the rollout plans we are discussing in detail today shows you just how big the team is for starters and the fact that it will, as you would expect, deploy its efforts right across the entire city”, further stating, “This will be the largest vaccination effort in the history of the City of Toronto and I am very confident that we will be able to meet this challenge”.
According to Toronto Public Health, a team of staff to help operate mobile and pop-up clinics in locations across the city will be assigned. Neighbourhoods that have had a higher rate of COVID-19 transmissions will be a priority.
Once directed by the Ford government, five of the city’s vaccination clinics which includes a large one at the Metro Toronto Convention that has already been set up can begin operations.
Work for the Mitchell Field Community Centre in North York scheduled for the North Toronto Memorial Community Center, is currently underway, with the Carmine Stefano Community Centre and Cloverdale Mall to follow after.
According to City Officials, efforts are in place to hire and train the staff of 1,400 people who will be required to keep the city’s mass immunization sites running.
The city has a three-prong strategy that will address vaccine hesitancy, which will include partnership with 280 neighborhood ambassadors, faith leaders, sports coaches and barbers.
The City has also partnered up with another 140 community agencies and is currently working on targeted campaigns in order to reach community members, specifically in those of hard-hit areas.
Board of Health Chair, Joe Cressy also spoke during Monday’s briefing, “As Torontonians, you have gone through a lot this past year and we all have gone through too much to come up short now”, he said. “Our vaccination campaign is the largest undertaking in our city’s history. Every neighborhood, every community agency, every resident must be a part of it. Think of it almost as an election but in this case we need to win more than 70 per cent of the vote and we need absolutely everyone on the ground working together to get residents to the polls or in this case the vaccine clinics”.
The Ford government does plan to vaccinate an additional 7.5 million residents continuing until June, during the second phase of its vaccination campaign.
Though certain public health units, including York, have already started setting up appointments for those aged 80 and above, it is not possible to do so here given the number of people in our demographic say Toronto officials.
News source: Cp24
