Tory, GTHA mayors call for more vaccine supply as hospitals aim to help accommodate COVID surge

Toronto Mayor John Tory and his counterparts across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) are calling on the provincial government for additional vaccine supply as Ontario’s hospitals close their pediatric units to help accommodate a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Statement: GTHA Mayors and Chairs call for additional COVID-19 vaccine supply pic.twitter.com/FY4R3lTnr8

— John Tory (@JohnTory) April 12, 2021

The City of Toronto has vaccinated over 670,000 eligible residents as of April 8th with over 130,000 doses administered from April 1st to April 7th.

“As the GTHA faces a third wave and our hospitals work to help people, our municipalities continue to administer all vaccine available from the provincial and federal governments,” GTHA mayors and chairs said in a joint statement.

“We remain fully committed to our job as municipalities which is to put as many vaccines into as many arms as we can, as quickly as we can, vaccine supply permitting. As much clarity as possible with respect to vaccine supply is obviously central to our ability to carry out this task.”

The Ontario Hospital Association says nearly all Greater Toronto Area hospitals are closing their pediatric units to help accommodate a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Association President Anthony Dale says 12 out of 14 GTA hospitals will send their pediatric patients to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children for care.

RELATED: 3 more COVID-19 immunization sites open in Toronto today

Dale says the closure, which takes effect today, was ordered over the weekend by the GTA Hospital Incident Management System Command Centre.

“This is a battle of a lifetime,” said Dale on Monday. “This virus has got Ontario under attack, we’re under siege in terms of community spread. A number of people are getting sick and this virus is trying to put hospitals on their knees.”

He says hospital staff from the pediatric units will be redeployed to care for a rising number of COVID-19 patients.

Dale says SickKids has also opened eight of its intensive care beds to young adults with the virus.

Ontario reported 612 patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units today, setting another new high.

“We support the efforts announced by the province to make sure residents in postal code hot spots have increased access to vaccine. We strongly support any action by the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario to increase vaccine supply right now so that we can vaccinate more people in these hot spot areas and on the provincial priority list,” the GTHA mayors and chairs added.

“We are also very supportive of Premier Ford’s goal of vaccinating 40 percent of Ontarians by May 5 and we await further details on how we can collaborate together to make that happen, including on questions of vaccine supply. We believe that achieving this goal will require increased supply for the GTHA and the deployment of additional human resources.”

With files from The Canadian Press