‘This is truly a team Toronto effort’: City to open 3 mass vaccination clinics on March 17

Mayor John Tory said Monday Toronto has enough vaccine supply to open three mass immunization clinics starting March 17.

Tory said the clinics will open early to vaccinate residents who are over the age of 80.

The three City-run clinics are:

• Metro Toronto Convention Centre
• Scarborough Town Centre
• Toronto Congress Centre

Tory says these clinics will operate seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Details on clinic operations, including how to book, will be available in the coming days, the City said.

A combination of Moderna and Pfizer vaccine will roll out to City-run and hospital partner clinics as follows:

• • Week of March 15 – 17,500 dose
  • Week of March 22 – 98,920 doses
  • Week of March 29 – 174,200 dose
  • Week of April 5 – 80,730 doses
  • Week of April 12 – 80,730 doses

In a release, the City said just over 200,000 Toronto residents have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to date, including those in long-term care homes, their essential caregivers, frontline healthcare workers, those experiencing homelessness and living in an emergency shelter, first responders and residents born on or before 1941.

“This truly is a Team Toronto effort and we are all determined to get people vaccinated as fast as we can and as the supply of vaccine allows,” said Tory in a release.

“After a year of combatting COVID-19, this vaccine supply news is great news. It means we are making important progress towards making sure everyone who wants the vaccine gets it. Every shot in every arm is a step towards putting this pandemic behind us.”

City launches booking website and hotline

Meantime, Toronto officials say the City has launched its own website and hotline for booking COVID-19 vaccines as it waits for a provincial system to make its debut.

The website says appointments are only available at this time to priority groups identified by the province.

Those include people aged 80 or older, some health-care workers, and Indigenous adults.

Toronto Councillor Joe Cressy, who chairs the city’s board of health, says the booking system is an interim measure in place until the province’s centralized online registration system is launched.

“Now that more supply has become available, all this planning has paid off. Alongside our hospital, community, and healthcare partners, Toronto is undertaking the largest immunization campaign in our country’s history,” said Cressy.

“It’s a Team Toronto effort designed to ensure that every resident in every corner of our city can access the vaccine.”

He says it is “not an ideal situation” but calls it a “necessary step” until the provincial system arrives, which is scheduled to be next week.

The city says vaccines are being administered to those with confirmed appointments at a number of Toronto hospitals and community health-care centres, including the University Health Network, and the Michael Garron and Humber River hospitals.

It says those institutions are working Monday to operate roughly 17 vaccination clinics, including mobile teams.