3 mass COVID-19 vaccination centres open in Toronto

The City of Toronto opened three mass COVID-19 vaccination centres on Wednesday for residents over the age of 80 who have booked appointments.

The clinics have been set up at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Scarborough Town Centre and Toronto Congress Centre.

“We want to open up these sites and keep them running until the job is done,” Mayor John Tory said. “And the job here, in this case, is as many needles in as many as arms as possible for all groups across the city — reminding people that right now we’re dealing with people who have made a reservation, made an appointment, and who are 80 years of age or over.”

“As people see that these clinics are open and sign up, that we will make huge progress on getting the population of the City of Toronto vaccinated, so that we can bring this pandemic to an end,” Tory added.

The vaccination clinics will run from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.

Margaret Ture, 89, said she was “thrilled” to get her shot at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where people moved quickly inside after arriving for their appointments.

“I can see my family, which I haven’t been able to see except outside,” Ture said. “It’s been a bit cold to be outside.”

Robert Maxwell said the process was well-organized.

“I’m very happy,” Maxwell said after getting his shot. “It gives you a much greater sense of confidence.”

RELATED: Toronto prepares to open three more mass immunization clinics by April 5

According to city officials, at the 55,000 square-foot clinic at the Toronto Congress Centre, teams of up to 10 immunizers at a time will work to vaccinate five people per hour, per team.

Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, who is leading Toronto’s emergency response, said each of the three clinics are currently scaled at 450 appointments per day.

“Of course, as we move through the weeks and the vaccine capacity increases, there’s a corresponding increase in our throughput in the clinic, the amount of vaccine we’re able to deliver so that we’ll increase proportionately as we move forward,” Pegg said.

More than 1,300 people are expected to roll up their sleeves on the first day.

“I would urge everybody to explore at getting vaccinated. If you have any need for any information, we have lots of it available to people so that they’ll be comfortable doing what everybody should do for themselves, and for the sake of their family, their coworkers, their friends, which is to get vaccinated — this is a very important thing to help us wrestle COVID-19 to the ground for once and for all,” Tory said.

The City will open three more vaccination clinics in the coming weeks. The clinics at Malvern Community Recreation Centre and the Mitchell Field Community Centre are scheduled to open on March 29, while the clinic at Hangar Sports and Events Centre will start on April 5.