After the Province was met with heavy criticism for slowing down vaccinations over the winter holidays, they’ve announced they will be ramping up vaccinations for residents and employees of long-term care facilities.
On January 5, the Province announced all residents, health care workers, and essential caregivers at long-term care homes in the priority regions of Toronto, Peel, York, and Windsor-Essex will receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccination by January 21, 2021.
Additionally, frontline health care workers who participated in the successful Pfizer pilot program in Toronto and Ottawa are receiving their second doses the week of January 4.
As of early January, the Ontario government has established 44 vaccine sites, and more than 50,000 people have been administered the Pfizer vaccine.
Of those who have been vaccinated, 26,000 are health care workers in long-term care homes and retirement homes, while more than 20,000 are health care workers and nearly 1,000 are residents of long-term care facilities.
Further, Between December 31, 2020, and January 3, 2021, 3,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine were administered to 24 long-term care homes across Ontario.
An additional 4,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are planned to be administered to 26 long-term care homes between January 4 and January 6.
Moreover, an estimated 2 million vaccine doses are expected to arrive throughout the winter during Phase One of the province’s vaccine implementation plan.
“Ontario continues to make important progress in quickly and safely vaccinating our frontline health care workers, our most vulnerable and those at greatest risk, and we continue to administer doses to thousands of Ontarians across the province,” Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, said in a news release.
“Our Vaccination Distribution Task Force, led by General Rick Hillier, has put a plan in place to get these doses distributed and administered as quickly as possible and that plan is working,” she continued.
