The city will be expanding walk-in COVID-19 vaccine appointments to more mass vaccination sites in Toronto amid an effort to get even more shots into arms as quickly as possible.
Starting July 10, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the Hangar and Cloverdale Mall will offer walk-in appointments, along with the Toronto Congress Centre.
The Congress Centre started taking walk-in appointments Thursday, marking the first time that the city’s mass vaccination sites allowed people to get vaccinated without an appointment. Some 318 people took advantage of the walk-in shots on the first day.
Starting Saturday, the walk-in shots will be available for anyone 18 and over at the four mass vaccination sites daily from noon to 7 p.m. People can walk in to receive a first or second shot as long as they have a piece of ID. Health cards are not mandatory.
The move to offer walk-in appointments alongside pre-booked appointments comes as the city uses plentiful vaccine supply levels to try and reach those who have yet to get fully or partially vaccinated.
Roughly 78 per cent of Toronto residents 18+ have had a first vaccine dose, while around 56 per cent have received a second shot.
City officials said Friday that roughly 150,000 Torontonians have vaccine appointments booked from August to October that could be moved up to this month.
Earlier this week Mayor John Tory said that the city is moving to try and “close the gap” between those who have had one dose and those who have had two.
The city has also launched a campaign to reach out to those in parts of the city with the lowest vaccine uptake.
Digital advertising campaigns, multilingual call centres and pop-up vaccine clinics in targeted areas are all part of the effort.
Especially with the rise of the more transmissible Delta variant, health officials have been urging as many people as possible to get fully vaccinated.
Even if an unvaccinated person does not become seriously ill from COVID-19, they can still act as an easy transmission point allowing the virus to spread.
Health officials have said that while the vaccines do a very good job of protecting most people against COVID-19, there will still be a few members of the community who remain vulnerable. Figures released by the province Thursday show that approximately 1.2 per cent of Ontarians who became infected with COVID-19 between May 15 and June 12 had been fully vaccinated.
As the proportion of vaccinated community members climbs however, the chances of possible exposure for those susceptible to “vaccine breakthrough” diminish.
Touring a mass vaccination site in Brampton Friday, Premier Doug Ford said that he won’t be happy until 100 per cent of Ontarians are vaccinated but he conceded that roughly 80 per cent of the population would be “pretty good,” even if there remain some people who do not wish to get a shot.
