Toronto to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine clinics ahead of expected demand for 3rd doses
CBC
Toronto officials say they are ramping up city-run immunization clinics to meet expected demand for third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Mayor John Tory said the city plans to nearly double the capacity of the five mass immunization clinics it operates. The clinics will begin to operate seven days a week with expanded hours, meaning they will have the potential to administer 41,000 doses weekly.
"We have been taking a calm but cautious and determined approach to the Omicron variant," Tory told reporters at a virtual news conference at city hall on Wednesday.
"The advice from public health officials is clear. We need to roll out as many booster shots to as many people as possible who are eligible as soon as possible. The good news? We are off to a good start on third doses."
More than 270,000 people in Toronto have already received their booster shots. Most residents in long-term care homes in Toronto got third doses as part of a coordinated flu shot campaign.
Tory said 20,000 more appointments have already been added to the booking system of city-run clinics.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that the province will expand eligibility for third doses to Ontarians 18 years of age and older and will shorten the interval between second and third doses to three months. Tory said the city will prepare for this change because it means more people will be eligible for booster shots starting on Monday.
"No doubt, this will lead to announcing even more enhancements in the coming days. No option is off the table in terms of meeting that increased need and expanding that capacity. We will explore every opportunity to ramp up that capacity," Tory said.
Team Toronto, the city's large vaccination network, is also looking at ways to increase capacity through new locations and expanded operations, Tory said. The network wants to add pharmacies to the list of the 450 currently administering COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Na-Koshie Lamptey, the city's deputy medical officer of health, said data from Wednesday shows there are 39 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in Toronto with more samples undergoing genome sequencing.
Lamptey said not all cases are linked to travel and that means there is local community transmission of the variant.
Omicron spreads rapidly, is highly transmissible and is quickly becoming the dominant strain in Ontario, she said.
Because of its rapid spread, the variant could lead to a large number of infections and even a small percentage of new cases could strain the health care system, she said. A booster shot increases a person's immune response against the variant, she added.
Toronto residents need to continue to be careful to prevent transmission, she said.
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