Peel Region will offer thousands of overnight vaccination appointments this weekend as part of a wider effort to target shift workers who might otherwise face barriers getting their shots.

The “Doses After Dark” clinic will run for 32 consecutive hours at Mississauga’s International Centre beginning at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday and wrapping up at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Officials say that more than7,600 doses will be administered at the clinic, including more than 5,000 that have been set aside for the overnight hours.

“We recognize that especially in our community a lot of people may work shift work so one of the things we've been looking to try to understand is what kind of demand there might be in the overnight hours,” Peel’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh told CP24. “It is an opportunity to both make use of the (increased) allocation which we're grateful for from the province for targeted hotspots such as ours and also to expand on top of the already expanded hours and operating capacity we have this week.”

Loh said that appointments for the weekend clinic will open on Tuesday and will be available to any adult resident of Peel Region.

He said that it is the biggest clinic held in the region to date in terms of the number of doses administered and will hopefully help Peel reach its goal of providing at least one dose to 75 per cent of adult residents by the end of the month.

“It is a 32-hour immunization marathon to try to just get this out there faster and further,” he said of the clinic.