Ontario will be offering fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to long-term care and retirement home residents and mandating third doses for staff.

Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s chief medical officer of health, made the announcement on Thursday afternoon.

Effective immediately, residents at long-term care, retirement homes, Elder Care Lodges and other congregate settings who are three months out from their third dose are eligible to receive their fourth shot of an mRNA vaccine.

“Many of these individuals are now likely becoming increasingly more susceptible to COVID-19 infection due to waning immunity from their previous doses,” Moore said.

The province also announced that eligible staff, students, volunteers, and support workers at those settings will be required to get a third dose by Jan. 28, 2022.

According to the province, 47 per cent of eligible staff and 86 per cent of residents in those settings have gotten their third booster.

Long-term care visitors will also need to show proof of having had a booster dose once the temporary pause on visits is lifted.

“Mandating third vaccine doses for long-term care staff and caregivers and offering fourth doses to residents is an important step our government is taking to protect long-term care staff and residents,” Long-Term Care Minister Rod Phillips said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Ontario announced that it is putting general visits on hold at long-term care homes in response to soaring case counts in the province. Only two designated caregivers will be allowed to visit.

Meanwhile, all residents and workers in congregate care will continue to be eligible for free PCR COVID-19 testing after Dec. 31 when the province’s testing guidance narrows to exclude most symptomatic adults.

There are currently 136 long-term care and retirement homes with active COVID-19 outbreaks.

Dr. Amit Arya, a palliative care physician and long-term care advocate, said the province needs to introduce stricter measures to curb community transmission and prevent COVID-19 from spreading at nursing home facilities.

“The number of cases that we have in the community determines how many outbreaks we have in our long-term care facilities. And we just simply cannot keep it out of long-term care if we have runaway transmission at this time,” Arya said.

“A long-term care facility is not on a separate island. So, what that means is we need better protection on the ground, which means N95 mask mandated for all essential caregivers and health workers in long-term care. It means more rapid testing. Simply doing rapid testing twice a week in long-term care is not enough.”

While making fourth doses available to long-term care residents is welcome, Arya said there are still thousands who still have not received their third dose and that should be addressed.

“We absolutely need to do all we can to vaccinate as many residents as we can. For those who are only at two doses, we need to give them their third dose as soon as possible. For third doses, we need to move up to fourth doses for the residents,” he said.

“We need to vaccinate the staff. Get them that crucial third dose as soon as we can.”

The Ontario Long-Term Care Association said it welcomes the announcement by the province.

“These are important actions responding to the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant focused on protecting residents, and the staff, students, volunteers, caregivers and support workers who provide care and support for their well-being,” Donna Duncan, the chief executive officer of the OLTCA, said in a statement.

“With the support of local public health units and their partners in hospitals, family health teams, and pharmacies, Ontario’s long-term care homes can begin the rollout of additional fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to eligible long-term care residents for increased protection.”