TORONTO – Ontario’s mass immunization campaign against Covid-19 continues unabated. The provincial government today announced an important milestone reached in the last few hours: one in two adults in the province has already received the first and second dose of vaccine. During a press conference Christine Elliott, together with Sollicitor Genral Sylvia Jones, reiterated that the vaccination campaign is not only meeting the timetable foreseen by the executive, but that even the numbers are higher than those budgeted.

“We have reached another significant milestone – underlined the Minister of Health – in our implementation of vaccines with over six million Ontario residents benefiting from the strong protection of their second dose earlier than expected.”

“Our work does not stop there and we will continue to work with our health care partners to ensure that every single Ontario resident who wants to receive the vaccine can access it. I encourage everyone to book an appointment as soon as possible to leave this pandemic behind us”.

According to the final data provided by the health authorities, so far more than 16 million doses of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered in the province. 51% of adult residents completed their vaccination journey, having received first and second doses, while 78% of adults were given the first dose.

“Vaccines – added Elliott – are our ticket to get out of the pandemic. And that’s why as we prepare to enter phase 3 of our roadmap to reopen it is essential that we all vaccinate as soon as possible.”

With the presence of the Delta variant – highly transmissible and very virulent – the data that is provided by the health authorities are somewhat comforting about the effectiveness of vaccines against new strains.

The period between 15 May and 12 June was examined, a phase in which the provincial vaccination campaign against Covid-19 accelerated significantly. During this time, a total of 29,380 people contracted Covid-19 in Ontario: of these, as many as 83 percent had not received any dose of vaccine, 15 percent had received one, and only 1 percent had received two.

In the meantime, there are also news on the supply side. This month – underlined the Minister of Health – Ontario will receive a maximum of 5 million doses of vaccine. As for the Pfizer vaccine, this week 350 thousand doses will arrive, about 550 thousand next week, while in the following two weeks 1.2 million and 1.4 million doses will be delivered respectively. Also this week in Ontario will arrive 1.6 million doses of Moderna and another 250 thousand doses of AstraZeneca, a delivery that was scheduled for June but that had been postponed.

With the progressive increase in the number of vaccinated, phase 3 of the plan to reopen the province is also approaching, scheduled for July 21, but which could be anticipated by a few days.