‘Ready to go when the time comes’

City ‘ready to go’ with immunizations once supply rolls in

Up to 120,000 people a week will be vaccinated at city-run clinics around Toronto,

Toronto will immunize as many as 120,000 people a week at nine large clinics across the city that will open as soon as the supply of COVID-19 vaccines is re-established, but most residents will be able to get their shots close to home, officials said Wednesday.

“We expect our large vaccination clinics will be just one part of the overall effort,” said Mayor John Tory, speaking at a COVID-19 update from city hall on Wednesday. “Depending on the type of vaccine available, we anticipate the majority of people will ultimately get their shot at a pharmacy or from their doctor.”

The nine city-operated clinics will be located at: 1. Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 255 Front St. W. 2. Toronto Congress Centre, 650 Dixon Rd. 3. Malvern Community Recreation Centre, 30 Sewells Rd. 4. The Hangar, 75 Carl Hall Rd. 5. Scarborough Town Centre, 300 Borough Dr. 6. Cloverdale Mall, 250 The East Mall 7. Mitchell Field Community Centre, 89 Church Ave. 8. North Toronto Memorial Community Centre, 200 Eglinton Ave. W. 9. Carmine Stefano Community Centre, 3100 Weston Rd.

The clinics are not yet open to the public, although the MTCC and Malvern sites are fully assembled, equipped with refrigeration units and poised to open immediately if required. The other sites will be prepared over the coming weeks, said Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, who is leading Toronto’s emergency operations and COVID-19 Immunization Task Force.

Once fully operational, the nine sites will employ 1,400 people. “The City of Toronto is ready to go when the time comes,” said Pegg.

The city’s immunization program will also include hospitalled vaccination clinics and mobile response services for the city’s homeless population and clients of the shelter system.

The nine clinics are tentatively scheduled to open in early April, depending on vaccine supply. Once vaccines become more widely available, people will be able to get shots in pharmacies and doctors offices.

It’s up to the province to decide who gets vaccinated next, Pegg said.

Seniors in long-term-care homes were the first to be vaccinated this year, along with health workers. The MTCC site, which opened briefly in January before vaccine supply was interrupted, will reopen Feb. 15 and 16 only to administer second doses to the 378 healthcare workers who received their first dose there.

Targeted vaccination campaigns are being planned for high-risk and vulnerable populations, Tory said.

The city will focus outreach on groups that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, including the Black community, Indigenous community, refugees, those living in group settings and isolated seniors, and will take into account communities with higher rates of vaccine hesitancy.

Toronto’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, reported 440 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, 426 people in hospital, and 16 deaths. There are 32 confirmed cases of the more contagious U.K. variant in Toronto.

“Living with COVID-19 right now is like trying to find our way out of a maze,” said de Villa. “As we look around almost everything looks the same, no matter where we turn. … Even so, step by step, we are finding our way toward the exit.”

She warned that vaccines are only part of the solution — people must continue to practise social distancing because every new case is an opportunity for the virus to mutate, which could delay a return to normalcy.

She pointed out that while waiting for the vaccines has proven frustrating, they were developed at unmatched speed.

“I am not certain that even just five years ago we could have developed vaccines such as we have today in the same amount of time,” she said.

Canada has approved two vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. De Villa said she is expecting approval of the Oxford AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

According to figures from Toronto Public Health, the sevenday average for daily new infections was 431 on Wednesday, down from a high of 1027.9 on Jan. 9.

The reproductive number was .81, meaning transmission is in decline. The reproductive value was at 1.1 in mid-January, meaning each new case resulted in more than one additional case.

“Living with COVID-19 right now is like trying to find our way out of a maze.” DR. EILEEN DE VILLA TORONTO’S MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH