Community groups to organize COVID-19 vaccines for 18+ residents in hotspots

A health-care worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a UHN COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Toronto on Jan. 7, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

By The Canadian Press and News Staff

Posted April 13, 2021 1:01 pm.

Last Updated April 13, 2021 6:33 pm.

Community groups and large employers will be enlisted to organize COVID-19 vaccine clinics for residents 18 and older in certain “high risk” neighbourhoods, the Ontario government said Tuesday as it defended its immunization plan.

The specifics came days after Premier Doug Ford said all adults in certain priority postal codes would be eligible for a shot — an announcement that went on to spark frustration when residents of those areas couldn’t find specifics.

Ford said mobile teams and pop-up clinics run by faith-based groups, community organizations and large employers will be used to get vaccines to residents of 114 hard-hit areas, starting with specific neighbourhoods in Toronto and Peel Region.

“Community outreach will be led by the best people for the job … these are the people with strong relationships with the surrounding community,” he said. “These are the people who can build trust to combat vaccine hesitancy and protect their most vulnerable.”

Appointments at those clinics will not be available through the provincial booking portal and the government directed individuals to their local public health unit for details.

The province says public health units may determine additional hotspot communities and can change plans to target those.

Education workers who work or live in hotspot postal codes in Toronto and Peel will be provided with an eligibility letter from their local school board to access a shot.

Those workers can schedule appointments through the provincial vaccine booking portal starting Tuesday. The province says that will expand to other hotspots, with timing to be determined.

However, while daycares remain open, childcare workers are still scheduled to get their first doses in mid-May unless they live in a hotspot.

Postal codes identified as hotspots

Postal codes identified as COVID-19 hotspots where residents 18 and over are eligible for a vaccine. Credit: Ministry of Health, Ontario

The government also said it will ask large employers to fund clinics hosted at their businesses and also offer vaccines to members of the community surrounding their facilities. The province could not immediately say how much the clinics will cost the employers to operate.

The community-driven clinics are in addition to vaccine appointments available through the provincial booking portal to people aged 50 and older living in hotspot postal codes in Toronto and Peel.

Ford denied that the hotspot vaccine plan, with its multiple layers, was confusing.

“For the folks that find it confusing, I have to tell you that 2.8 million people didn’t find it confusing,” he said, referencing the number of people currently booked for a shot.

“The 3.3 million that we vaccinated didn’t find it confusing. So, if I’m doing the math right we’re at well over six million people that didn’t find it confusing. Folks, it’s very, very simple.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the province’s vaccine rollout has been “shoddy” and “unclear”.

“I think it’s shameful that the premier keeps pointing his fingers at Ontarians instead of stepping up and fixing the mess he’s made here,” she said.

Green party Leader Mike Schreiner accused Ford of “gaslighting” people with his claims the vaccine booking process is simple. “Days after the premier finally announced targeted hot spot vaccinations, people still have no idea how to get a shot,” he said. “There is mass confusion — that’s on the Premier, not the individuals.”

Meanwhile, two shipments of the Moderna vaccine scheduled to arrive in April have each been delayed by a week and the province says it is not able to administer the 150,000 doses a day they are capable of due to ongoing supply issues. Currently an average of 97,500 vaccine doses are being administered daily.

A look at vaccine delivery schedules for Ontario. Credit: Ministry of Health

More vaccine supply is expected from the federal government over the coming weeks, with most doses coming from Pfizer. The province says those vaccines have been “weighted to support vaccination of high-risk communities to ensure reliable delivery.”

Since Monday, 95,692 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered and a total of 3,310,157 vaccine doses have been given in the province so far.

By age group, the following numbers have been given the first dose of the vaccine:

80 and older: 88 per cent
75-79: 81 percent
70-74: 62 per cent
65-69: 38 per cent
60-64: 35 per cent
55-59: 20 per cent
50-54: 14 per cent

A look at the current status of vaccine administration in Ontario. Credit: Ministry of Health

Projected sequencing of phase two of Ontario’s vaccine rollout, April to June. Updated as of April 9. Credit: Ministry of Health

The province’s vaccine effort is progressing as cases of COVID-19 continue to surge.

Ontario set another record Tuesday for patients with the virus in intensive care units — 626 — and reported 1,822 people in hospital because of COVID-19.

It also reported 3,670 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 15 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that the province continues to explore options to create more capacity in hospitals and find new workers to staff intensive care units, including workers from outside of Ontario.

“With respect to work forces, if there are available teams that would be able to come from particularly the Atlantic provinces, we are certainly looking at that as an option,” she said.

Earlier in the day, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario said that for the first time in its history, it was preparing to accept young adults in its critical care wards because of spiking COVID-19 case counts.

The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto made a similar move Monday.