Toronto’s first immunization clinic set to open Monday
Staff will administer vaccines to 250 front-line health-care workers a day
The opening of the city’s first immunization clinic calls for feelings of hope, Mayor John Tory said, touring the downtown Toronto facility with Premier Doug Ford ahead of its Monday opening.
“First and foremost, there is the hope that the vaccines are on their way,” Tory said Sunday, adding that seeing the facility open makes him feel optimistic about the logistical process that’s in the works.
The clinic at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will administer vaccinations to 250 front-line health-care workers a day, including those who work in shelters and harm reduction, and public health workers who will, in turn, administer the vaccine to others.
The downtown clinic, near Union Station, is set to open three months ahead of schedule.
Another reason for hope, Tory said, is that the clinic will provide lessons for the vaccine rollout in the rest of the province.
Six weeks after opening the clinic, city and provincial officials will collaborate on a “playbook” with new lessonslearned to assist the province in carrying out operations at future clinics, Tory said.
The clinic is a pilot project “we can expand right across the province,” Ford said Sunday.
He added that retired Canadian Armed Forces general Rick Hillier, who is at the head of Ontario’s vaccine distribution task force, is looking at 50 sites for new immunization clinics.
The downtown clinic, near Union Station, is set to open three months ahead of schedule
The federal government is responsible for obtaining the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, while the province is responsible for distributing the vaccine and deciding who gets it and in what order.
The city is responsible for setting up the administration of the vaccines locally.
To date, the province has administered more than 200,000 vaccines, according to the province’s report Sunday morning.
The milestone came a day after Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said the province is changing its schedule for second doses of the Pfizer vaccine after the pharmaceutical giant announced a production delay.
The province also says 21,714 people have completed their vaccinations, which means they have had both shots.
The province is currently in Phase 1 of its three-phased vaccine distribution implementation plan.
The first vaccines are being given to health-care workers in hospitals, long-term-care homes, retirement homes and other congregate care settings. The new Toronto clinic will not be open to the general public.
With the efforts and collaboration of public servants, residents taking “personal responsibility” to stay home and the vaccines coming in, “spring will be a much brighter time for us all and we will get through what I know is a difficult winter so far,” Tory said Sunday.