Ontario accelerating 2nd vaccine dose timeline for Delta COVID-19 variant hotspots

Those who live in COVID-19 hotspots where the more transmissible Delta variant has been spreading will be able to receive their second vaccine dose sooner.

As of June 14, residents in Toronto, Peel Region, Porcupine, Halton Region, Waterloo, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph and York Region will be eligible to book their second doses if they received their first dose before May 9.

The appointment can be booked through the Ontario booking system and directly through public health units that use their own booking system.

The province will be providing additional allocation of vaccine doses to those areas once the local inventory has been fully utilized.

Anyone who received their vaccine prior to April 18 and anyone over 70 is currently eligible to book their second dose.

For those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Ford government has kept the recommended interval at 12 weeks if you received it as your first dose, regardless of what kind of vaccine you plan to get as your second dose.

The shortest vaccine timeline is 28 days for those who received Pfizer and Moderna.

The province is also now encouraging Ontarians who received their first or both doses outside the province to contact their local public health unit to have their COVID-19 immunization record verified and documented in their vaccination system.

Ontario is expected to receive over 6.4 million doses of Pfizer by the end of July and another two million Moderna doses by the end of June.

Latest data also show Ontario has now surpassed both the U.S. and U.K. in relative terms when it comes to the percentage of the population who have received one dose of a COVID vaccine. The province has also matched or outpaced Israel in terms of first dose vaccination rates.

With files from The Canadian Press