A spokesperson for Waterloo Public Health says the health authority opened up some more COVID-19 vaccination appointments on Monday afternoon but those were quickly filled.
That means that the wait will be a little longer for the hundreds of thousands of people over the age 18 who became eligible for a third jab of COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.
On Friday, the head of the region’s vaccination efforts, Vickie Murray, estimated that 350,000 people would join those already waiting for third dose appointment in the area.
“You can take a look at the numbers, and we’re probably going to have to look at being able to do 20,000 vaccinations a day to meet the demand,” she said. “But the most we’ve ever done was 10,000 a day once in July.”
Waterloo Public Health also opened up almost 5,500 appointments on Friday and more on Monday and are looking to add even more as they are quite busy already.
“Between December 20 and February 6, a total of 52,189 appointments are currently booked across all regional vaccination clinics,” Public Health spokesperson Sharon Ord told Global News in an email.
“This does not include appointments at pharmacies and doctors’ offices.”
Hitting pharmacies or a family physician might be a good way for those looking to get in a jab a little sooner.
“Both community pharmacies and primary care offices have also had significant increases in the rate of vaccination,” Murray said Friday.
“On Monday, our community pharmacies did 2,964 doses. That is their highest ever one-day total for vaccination in our region.
“Primary care partners have tripled their output over the past week, and many primary care offices are offering in-office clinics for their patients.”