TORONTO – The long wait is over. The Ontario government has decided that due to concerns about staff shortages in hospitals, it will not make vaccination mandatory for health-care workers. This was announced today by Prime Minister Ford himself, sparking endless controversy: both the Ontario Science Table and doctors and experts in the field had asked to make the vaccine mandatory for health workers. “The issue is complex. After reviewing the situation our government decided to maintain its flexible approach by leaving the decision to individual hospitals,” he said.
Meanwhile, starting from November 6, other inhabitants of Ontario – 2.75 million – will be able to book an appointment to receive a booster dose for Covid-19. Announcing that this weekend categories of high-risk individuals will be able to receive the third dose in order to better protect themselves against the Delta variant, was the Chief Medical Officer of Health of the province Kieran Moore. “Maintaining a low infection rate in our communities and protecting the most fragile is how we can keep our schools, businesses and social environments as safe as possible by avoiding further lockdowns to provide every individual with the best protection as they learn to live with the virus in the long term, we are ready to extend the readiness for recall to all Ontario residents starting as early as this week with the people most at risk of contracting Covid-19”.
Based on the recommendation of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and in line with the recent recommendation of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the province will begin offering booster doses – as long as at least six months have passed since the last dose – to the following categories:
• Individuals aged 70 years and older (born in 1951 or earlier);
• Designated health workers and essential caregivers in collective facilities (including staff in long-term care homes and designated nursing homes and caregivers);
• Individuals who have received a full set of a viral vector vaccine (two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of the Janssen vaccine);
• Adults of the First Nation, Inuit and Métis and their non-indigenous family members.
Appointments to receive the booster dose can be booked starting at 8am on Saturday morning. The Chief Medical Officer of Health of the province, while recommending it because “it adds an “extra level of protection” against Covid-19 and its variants” – has specified that this third dose is not mandatory.
Moore has reiterated several times that the booster dose is important: “Since January, the government, which has been waiting for clinical information, plans to expand the eligibility for vaccination to all inhabitants of Ontario,” the doctor anticipated.
But the protection of vulnerable categories of people with the administration of the booster vaccine has already begun last August when priority was given to people undergoing transplants, residents of “high-risk environments” such as long-term care homes and First Nations residences for the elderly.
This eligibility was further extended in September to include patients undergoing active treatment for solid cancers, those with moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency and other vulnerable populations.
At present, 88.2% of eligible Ontario residents have received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 84.6% two doses and are therefore considered fully vaccinated. Moore also said that logistical preparations are underway for immunization of children aged five to 11: Health Canada’s approval is expected any day and the start of vaccinations is scheduled for the end of November.