City of Hamilton health officials say in an effort to increase access and provide greater protection against COVID-19, various groups within the community can walk in to select vaccine clinic locations to receive a vaccine booster dose.
Pregnant individuals and their families can walk into several vaccination clinics beginning Friday.
They include the Mountain Vaccine Clinic, David Braley Health Sciences Centre, Centre on Barton, St. Joseph’s Healthcare West 5th Campus, all of Hamilton Public Health mobile vaccine clinics across the city and the Hamilton Public Library-Barton Branch.
Beginning Saturday at noon, the Centre on Barton is offering walk-in booster shots to all those 18 and over.
Those over 18 years of age that are immunocompromised, who require a three-dose series to be fully vaccinated, are recommended to book an appointment through the city’s online booking tool, VERTO portal.
These individuals can use the portal to book a fourth dose as long as at least three months (84 days) have passed since their third dose.
With limited Pfizer BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine supply, those shots will be reserved for under the age of 30 for first, second and third doses until further notice.
Individuals over the age of 30 will be offered the Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine when arriving at a vaccine clinic.
The city is set to slow down vaccinations at it’s Lime-Ridge clinic mid-month.
As of Jan. 17, the city will knock down the current two shifts a day to just one allocating the resources to the mobile stream of their fourth dose campaign.
Retirement homes, long-term care homes and high-risk settings are the target of the moving clinics.
The city will also begin a ramp-up of school-based vaccination clinics as well.
Over 80% of Hamiltonians eligible 12-plus fully vaccinated
Hamilton health care partners put close to 7,000 shots in arms on Thursday which was more than the average number of daily shots (6711) administered in the city since Jan. 1.
Over 50,000 more dose have been given out in the city over the past seven days, 5,000 more than the previous seven days.
As of Jan. 14, the city has put about 1.14 million COVID vaccine doses into arms with about 452,000 second visits and 234,000 third shots.
Over 80.5 per cent of eligible Hamiltonians aged five and up have had a pair of doses while 85.7 per cent have gotten at least one shot.
About 86.6 per cent of residents aged 12-plus have had al least two shots, while about 89.2 per cent have had a first dose.
The city is still behind the provincial average, which has 88.6 per cent of those 12-plus with two doses and 91.3 per cent with a single dose. Third dose immunization is at 5.3 million or 41.1 per cent as of Thursday.
More than 91 per cent of those aged 60-plus in the city have had two shots, while more than 59 per cent have had a booster.
Excluding kids aged five to 11, Hamiltonians in the 12-to-24 age group represent the lowest vaccination rates of those eligible in the community at just over 80 per cent having had a pair of doses.