Ottawa will finish the second round of coronavirus vaccinations in retirement homes over the weekend as the province prepares to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone aged 75 and older starting Monday.
Mayor Jim Watson tweeted a memo from staff Friday afternoon indicating that all residents of the 82 retirement homes in Ottawa will have been offered their second dose of the vaccine by the end of the day on Saturday.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Friday morning that the province’s timeline for vaccinations has moved up and it will start offering vaccine appointments to anyone in the province age 75 and older starting Monday.
Ottawa’s community vaccination clinics, which started opening a week ago, have now administered 3,700 initial doses of the vaccine.
Two vaccination clinics are currently open at the Nepean Sportsplex and the Ruddy Family YMCA-YWCA, and two additional sites will open on Tuesday at Ottawa City Hall and the Eva James Memorial Community Centre in Kanata.
To date, nearly 88,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered locally with 17,000 of those jabs given in the last week. The city’s total inventory of doses received so far stands at 97,170.
Ontario announced it will start expanding the vaccine distribution network via pharmacies in the province next week but has not yet disclosed whether any locations will be added in Ottawa.
Currently, those aged 60 to 64 are eligible to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine through pharmacies in three regions of the province, but the age limit will be lifted to anyone 60 years old and above next week.
Ottawa Public Health reported 74 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and one additional death related to the virus.
The number of active cases in the city stands at 668.