Ontario opens new mass vaccination clinic in Mississauga

In an effort to get more COVID-19 boosters into people’s arms Ontario is opening a new mass vaccination clinic at the International Centre in Mississauga.

The new clinic, located near Pearson Airport, is open as of Dec. 23 and will administer boosters to eligible adults and first and second doses to anyone five and older.

The official announcement from the province comes a day after the the Ministry of Health advised Switch Health — the company it worked with to set up the clinic — mistakenly launched the booking website before it was supposed to go public.

“Quickly accelerating booster doses is the cornerstone of Ontario’s response to the threat posed by the Omicron variant to the province’s hospitals and intensive-care units,” reads a release from the province. “Third booster doses provide an increased level of protection for people against severe outcomes.”

The clinic will operate seven days a week and residents can book their shot through the provincial booking portal or by calling the Provincial Vaccine Contact Centre at 1-833-943-3900.

The province says a limited number of walk-in appointments will also be available.

The clinic will be ramping up capacity and will administer around 19,000 doses per day at full capacity.

The early launch of the website in error lead to some speculation that the new booking portal was a scam.

The Ministry of Health later confirmed that the site was not in fact a scam, but a legitimate government offering that’s in the works, but shouldn’t have gone live yet.

Switch Health released a statement saying that while the website went live “inadvertently” any appointments scheduled during that time will be honoured.

With files from CityNews’ Michael Talbot