Toronto announced that it will start to take COVID-19 vaccine appointments for seniors aged 70 and older beginning Saturday at 8 a.m. at City-run clinics.
Mayor John Tory made the announcement early Friday, urging those who can get vaccinated to do so.
“We need people to sign up. We need people to get vaccinated,” he said, adding there are over 30,000 appointments available for the coming week.
“We are leading Ontario in getting shots in arms and we aren’t going to stop until everyone that wants a vaccine, gets one. We are continuing to ramp up our clinic capacity as more vaccine supply comes in from the Government of Canada.”
Those eligible can book here or by calling the provincial vaccination line at 1-888-999-6488.
The mayor also emphasized those aged 60 and older can continue to book for the AstraZeneca vaccine at participating pharmacies.
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The City has opened six mass immunization clinics at locations around Toronto.
Available Saturday for appointments are the clinics located at:
- Metro Toronto Convention Centre
- Toronto Congress Centre
- Scarborough Town Centre
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Available as of Monday at the follow clinics:
- Malvern Community Recreation Centre
- Mitchell Field Arena
- East York Town Centre
Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson are the vaccines currently approved in Canada. The first three require two shots administered several weeks apart while the fourth requires only one.
The province said as of Thursday night, more than 71 per cent of Ontario residents aged 80 and over have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Toronto’s medical officer of health said provincial data showing that there hasn’t been a single death in long-term care homes since March 19 demonstrates how well vaccines can work.
“That tells us that’s not luck. That’s actually the effect of the vaccination,” said Dr. Eileen De Villa.
Toronto reported 682 new coronavirus cases on Friday.
As of Friday morning, Ontario reported a total of 338,238 cases and 7,292 total deaths since the onset of the pandemic.
—With files from Gabby Rodrigues and The Canadian Press
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