Toronto is launching a new multi-phase campaign to boost vaccination rates and ensure that the city will eventually be able to achieve the level of immunity that will allow for a return to “normal life,” Mayor John Tory says.
The VaxTO campaign will involve the use of “texts, emails, voice broadcasts, telephone town halls and targeted multilingual social media advertising” to convince people about the benefits of getting vaccinated, the city says.
The first phase will largely be focussed on convincing all Torontonians to get their first dose but the second phase, which begins in mid-June, will see a shift in resources to target neighbourhoods with lower vaccination rates. The third and final phase, slated to begin in July, will be focused on making sure that residents who have already received one dose roll up their sleeves again.
So far about 68 per cent of Toronto adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, which surpasses the Ontario average.
“The experience so far has really shown that Torontonians are stepping up to get vaccinated, the issue we are seeing is not hesitancy; rather it is simply access,” Board of Health Chair Joe Cressy said during a briefing at city hall on Wednesday afternoon. “Where VaxTO comes in is to ensure that we are able to reach directly every single Torontonian to help provide that access. The principle here is just reach everyone wherever they are. So whether that is phoning you at home, texting you, through social media, the principle here is access. Make access to vaccines easy and readily available and that is how we achieve herd immunity.”
The VaxTO campaign had a soft launch of sorts this weekend with a robocall that went out to 150,000 households in 18 priority neighbourhoods encouraging them to get vaccinated. Tory said that “hundreds” of people were then connected directly to agents at the provincial call centre to book an appointment for a shot.
Starting today, the city is also launching an information portal that will allow anyone who texts “VACCINE” to 1-833-750-0888 to be connected with resources, including appointment bookings.
There is also a telephone town hall planned for June 2 so those who have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine can get answers directly from Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa.
“There has been a lot of opinions that have been expressed through the media and otherwise about the vaccines that people have to absorb and I think it just takes a reasonable period of time for some people to accustom themselves to this as opposed to those like me, who just automatically go if Dr. de Villa or my own doctor says it, it’s OK,” Tory acknowledged on Wednesday. “I think a lot of them (those who are hesitant) will get convinced to get vaccinated; it just takes more time with some people.”
Toronto has already administered more than two million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Most city-run clinics are nearly fully booked for the next few weeks but officials say that there are approximately 96,000 appointments still available between now and July 1.
