Plus: Thousands of Toronto cops now eligible,
Front-line officers part of effort to prioritize medical first responders
More than 2,000 Toronto police officers are now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, after some front-line officers who respond to medical calls were moved up into the province’s current vaccination phase.
Starting Monday, 2,250 frontline constables and sergeants who respond to emergency calls “where medical assistance may be required” became eligible for vaccination alongside other medical first responders, according to Toronto police spokesperson Connie Osborne. Paramedics and firefighters were already eligible to be vaccinated.
Most of those newly eligible work as priority response or neighbourhood community officers, or with mobile crisis intervention teams that answer mental health-related calls.
In a statement, a provincial spokesperson said front-line police officers have always been included in Phase 1 of the province’s vaccine rollout plans, alongside paramedics and firefighters.
“For clarity, only active duty front-line police officers who as part of their duties regularly provide emergency medical care are included in Phase 1,” said Andrew Morrison, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General, which oversees the province’s vaccine task force. “Last week, clarity was provided that certain frontline police officers, similar to certain front-line firefighters, fit into this category.”
Morrison said police officers who work in investigative units or on desk duty are not eligible.
“Medical first responders” are listed among the highest priority health care workers eligible to be vaccinated in Phase 1, while “front-line essential workers, including first responders” are included in Phase 2, which is estimated to begin in April.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said the province has prioritized medical first responders, which involves some front-line police work.
“If you look at police officers performing CPR, police officers administering Naloxone, you have not all of the police officers but a certain number of them who are, daily in many respects, involved in that kind of a call,” Tory said Monday.
Joe Couto, spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, said his organization has been working with the government to ensure that officers working in front-line roles were vaccinated “as soon as possible” after the province’s most vulnerable populations.
“Obviously our officers have interactions, just like firefighters and paramedics do, with members of the public” where medical assistance may be required, Couto said.
Last week, Ontario announced that the province’s online booking portal for vaccination appointments wouldn’t be open until mid-March, when independent-living seniors over 80 will be able to schedule vaccinations, although they have already begun in some health units.
Dionne Aleman, director of the Medical Operations Research Lab at the University of Toronto, said many police officers are clearly at a heightened risk for contracting COVID-19 because they are often interacting with people who may not be wearing masks.