Ontario to soon offer 4th doses of COVID vaccine to those 60+
Posted April 5, 2022 12:58 pm.
Last Updated April 5, 2022 8:30 pm.
Ontario’s health minister says details will be released Wednesday on the province’s plan to provide fourth doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for those aged 60 and older.
Fourth doses in the province are already available to long-term care and retirement home residents, as well as those who are immunocompromised.
“Our medical advisers have recommended … that we go to 60 to provide an added level of protection to the residents of Ontario,” Elliott said at Queen’s Park on Tuesday. “We will have more information about that available tomorrow.”
Earlier in the day, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) said provinces and territories should prepare to offer fourth doses in the coming weeks, prioritizing those 80 and older and residents in long-term care.
This latest update from the Ford government comes as the province is seeing rising hospitalizations, which have been the highest since the end of February.
“We’re watching very carefully but Dr. Moore has indicated that we don’t need to bring back the mask mandate and he has said in the past that we should have expected the numbers would go up as we open up Ontario,” Elliott said, adding “Ontario is in a very good place.”
Premier Doug Ford on Monday called the rise in cases “a little spike” that the province anticipated, and Elliott repeated that messaging on Tuesday.
“It’s not unanticipated that this would happen. This is something that when you’re opening up the province to the degree that we have, and with the transmissibility of this virus, that we expected to see the numbers increase,” Elliott said.
Ontario ended mask mandates in most public spaces two weeks ago, except for public transit and healthcare settings such as hospitals and long-term care homes.
Premier Doug Ford said Monday that Ontario is able to manage the “little spike” in COVID-19 that the province is seeing right now. He said the spike was expected and that he will continue to follow the advice of the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore.
It has been four weeks since Dr. Moore has been available for questions. The last day he held a press conference was on March 9, when he announced most mask mandates were being lifted on March 21.
With files from Michael Ranger and Cynthia Mulligan of CityNews, and The Canadian Press
