Ontario pharmacies begin offering AstraZeneca vaccine today
Posted April 20, 2021 5:56 am.
Last Updated April 20, 2021 11:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The demand for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has reversed course in Ontario as the shot becomes available to younger residents.
People aged 40 and older are now able to start getting the shot at some 1,400 pharmacies across the province.
A spokesperson for Loblaw, which runs its own pharmacies along with Shoppers Drug Mart, tells the Toronto Star, that demand for the vaccine now exceeds the supply.
Kerry Bowman from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto tells CityNews that the change in demand could have profound effects on Ontario’s vaccine rollout.
“If there is high uptake in the cohort, coupled with increased availability in the weeks and months ahead, this could be a huge improvement for all of us,” says Bowman.
The receptiveness to the shot from the younger age group represents a stark contrast to the surrounding uncertainty in recent weeks.
In a series of tweets posted on social media last week, infectious diseases expert and member of Ontario’s Vaccination Task Force Dr. Isaac Bogoch said there appeared to be a great deal of hesitancy when it comes to AstraZeneca.
The head of the Ontario Pharmacists Association said that most of the AstraZeneca doses in Ontario don’t expire until the end of May, but that a timer starts ticking as soon as a vial – which contains 10 doses – is punctured to retrieve the first shot.
He said vaccine hesitancy around the shot has led to last-minute appointment cancellations that meant some of those doses could go to waste – something pharmacists were working hard to avoid.
RELATED: What you need to know about getting an AstraZeneca vaccine in Ontario
The province announced the change on Sunday after federal health minister Patty Hajdu said in a new conference that it was within the provinces’ jurisdiction to change the age limits for the vaccine.
Provinces across the country had previously stuck to the National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s (NACI) recommendation to only offer the shot to anyone 55 and over due to a small risk of a extremely rare blood clots.
Many Ontario physicians took to social media to express their frustration with the province’s lack of action on the issue ahead of Sunday’s announcement.
While Health Canada has given the all clear for any adult to get the AstraZeneca shot, NACI has yet to alter their recommendations.
In late March, the panel recommended a pause on the vaccine for people under 55 due to safety reasons stemming from the rare blood clot syndrome.
NACI has called a press conference for Tuesday afternoon to discuss their latest findings.
Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba have also dropped the age requirement to 40.
Quebec says it will be lowering the age for AstraZeneca, although it’s not clear what that age will be.
More than 700,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered in Canada and about two million doses have been shipped.
With files from the Canadian Press
