Halton Region begins offering COVID-19 vaccines to some aged 16 and up

Halton Region now has Ontario’s lowest age of eligibility for a COVID-19 vaccine as its municipalities began offering appointments to anyone 16 years of age or older who cannot work from home as of Monday.

Additionally, those aged 16 and over and who are living in the Milton L9E postal code can also get a shot. Bookings can be made online through Halton’s official website.

The offering comes the same week the rest of the province moves to book those 40 and over for shots. On Tuesday, people with at-risk health conditions such as dementia, diabetes and sickle cell disease will be able to book an appointment.

So far Halton has given out 222,676 doses through its vaccine program. About 170,000 have been through hospital clinics, 20,000 through mobile clinics and 33,000 through pharmacies and primary care doctors.

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In a statement in late April, chair Gary Carr said two months in, the regional rollout has been running “smoothly” but needs a more “predictable” supply of shots like many other municipalities across Ontario.

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“Our ability to expand to more eligible groups remains dependent on ongoing and predictable supplies from both the provincial and federal governments,” Carr said.

“We have capacity in our vaccination clinics to vaccinate double what we are doing now if more supply was available.”

Canada is set to receive two million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week — the only expected shipments.

The next shipment of Moderna isn’t until next week, and the federal government has no word on when more doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Johnson and Johnson vaccines will arrive.

Halton now has over 16,000 total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began after recording another 106 on Sunday.

The region also recorded its 218th death, a resident in Milton.

There were 805 active COVID-19 cases as of Sunday with Milton have over 250.

Ninety-two people are in Halton hospitals with COVID-19 and 32 in intensive care units (ICU). Regional hospitals are reporting a combined 79 per cent occupancy rate with ICU beds.

Public health reported a reproductive number of 1.0 on Friday which indicates there is still spread of the virus in the community with an average of 2.1 hospitalizations every week.

The seven-day moving average of cases was at 119 at the end of last week with almost all of them coming from non-institutional or congregate settings.

The region’s percentage positivity rate, last recorded on May 1, shows that 8.7 per cent of all tests are coming back positive in Halton.