TORONTO – Chaos in Ontario over lack of spots for the second Covid-19 dose. Today, starting at 8 a.m., all residents of the hotspots identified by the provincial government – Toronto, Peel, Halton, Porcupine, Waterloo, York and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph – had the opportunity to access the portal to reserve the reservation of the covid vaccine recall injection. But the day was marked by delays, inconveniences, with the website overloaded with the number of requests that arrived.
In fact, even from a logistical and organizational point of view, a better job could have been done. We tried since 8.30 am to book the second dose. After waiting over an hour, we were able to access the first portal window. Since then, it has been impossible to proceed with the booking.
Amid long breaks during which it was informed that no free places were currently available in Toronto, vaccination centers were offered in Hamilton, Brampton, Lindsay and other locations. But the main obstacle was not even the distance: even trying to book the second dose in these cities, the portal frothed informing that there were no more slots available. In short, it was a frustrating experience lived by thousands of people residing in hotspots.
To counterbalance the single chaotic experience experienced by those who failed to reserve the vaccine recall injection, the fact remains that Ontario residents responded with great enthusiasm to the repeated appeal by health authorities and the government to have the second dose as soon as possible.
This is an important signal, which testifies once again to the fact that there is general confidence in vaccines and towards the idea that with the acceleration of the mass immunization campaign it will be possible to return as soon as possible to live a life very close to that of pre-pandemic normality.
Those who failed to book the appointment for the second dose yesterday will be able to try again today and in the next few days when obviously the volume of requests will begin to decrease progressively.
In any case, the overall picture is beginning to be more comforting than it was a few weeks ago. In Ontario, too, fewer than 500 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded yesterday, an important figure in line with those of the last ten days. It is now clear that this third wave is now in its infancy, barring unforeseeable tail-end blows.
The situation is improving, just as the pressure of Covid patients on the entire provincial health system is greatly decreasing, with the decline in hospitalizations and intensive care admissions.
In addition, a new push to combat the pandemic will come just this week after the arrival of a large number of doses. Over the next seven days, a total of about 9.5 million doses of the Covid vaccine will arrive in Canada, with just under half destined for Ontario. In detail, Moderna will deliver to our country 7.1 million doses divided into two distinct supplies, 2.9 million doses tomorrow and 4.2 million doses at the weekend. To these, we must add 2.4 million doses of Pfizer.
According to federal government data, Canada has so far received a maximum of 22.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 6.2 million Modern and 2.9 million doses of AstraZeneca.
