City has thousands of vaccination slots

‘Please get vaccinated over the weekend,’ mayor implores residents

Toronto is back to pleading with residents to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments at city-run clinics, with more than 10,000 Victoria Day weekend appointments still open on Friday afternoon.

Mayor John Tory urged anyone who has not yet received their first dose to book an appointment immediately and to encourage anyone who might be vaccine hesitant to join them.

Tory noted that a little over 60 per cent of Toronto adults have received at least their first dose of vaccine at a city clinic or others operated by hospitals and community organizations.

That means “if you have 10 friends, four of them have not been vaccinated and that conversation has to happen,” Tory said on CP24.

“Please, for the sake of your own life and getting it back to something happier and normal, please get vaccinated over the weekend.”

Every jab, Tory said, “pushes us closer to the threshold Premier (Doug) Ford set for reopening,” in a plan released Thursday that sets vaccination benchmarks that must be hit before restaurant dining and other activities can resume.

The 12,000 long-weekend appointments that were available Friday morning had shrunk to about 10,500 by 4:30 p.m.

Torontonians can book via the city website by clicking the blue button at toronto.ca/home/covid-19/ or by calling the provincial vaccine booking line 1-833943-3900.

News that Ontario is, as of Sunday morning, allowing vaccine appointments for anyone aged 12 and older should help fill some of the city clinic spots.

Also Sunday, the city has announced it will hold, with University Health Network, a popup vaccination clinic inside Toronto city hall for any Torontonian aged 12 or older as of that day.

Doors to the main Nathan Phillips Square entrance open at 10 a.m. and stay open until the 2,000 doses are gone. No OHIP card is required and priority will be given to residents who can show they live in one of the identified hot spot postal codes.

Just last week there were fears Torontonians wanting vaccine wouldn’t be able to get appointments at the nine city-run clinics. The province lowered age eligibility to 18-plus at the same time the city’s vaccine supply plunged 40 per cent due to the end of provincial allocation for health units with COVID-19 hot spots.

That followed past cycles of appointment abundance and scarcity as the Ontario government made successive waves of people eligible for vaccination.

On Monday, with assurances from the Ontario government that vaccine supplies from the federal government are ramping up, the city opened 40,000 extra appointments for the weeks of May 14, 21 and 28.

Tory also urged everyone to stick to public health guidelines over the Victoria Day weekend.