TORONTO: More than half of all adults in Ontario have now received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine rollout continues to reach all individuals aged 12 and over with first and second doses, while the province prepares for Step Three of the Roadmap to Reopen.
Health care workers across the province have administered more than 16 million doses since the start of the rollout, with Ontario ranking as one of the world’s leading jurisdictions for population percentage to have received their first dose.
To date, more than 78 per cent of adults aged 18 and over have received at least a first dose and more than 51 per cent have received both doses, ensuring the strongest possible protection against COVID-19.
“We have reached another significant milestone in our vaccine rollout with over six million Ontarians benefitting from the strong protection of their second dose ahead of schedule,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.
To further increase local uptake, the province is continuing to work closely with public health units, community organizations and other key stakeholders to ensure priority populations from Phase One and Phase Two of the vaccine rollout are able to access their first and second dose appointments and to address other barriers to vaccination.
Targeted strategies include mobile clinics and community-based pop ups, dedicated clinic days for youth as well as for people with disabilities, townhall meetings in multiple languages, and services such as transportation, translation, and drive-through clinics.
As part of the province’s continued effort to protect hot spot communities with high Delta variant transmission, targeted supports including community and workplace clinics as well as pop-up teams and additional vaccination staff have been administering COVID-19 vaccines in Delta hot spots. Delta hot spot communities received more than 772,000 vaccine doses from June 14 to July 5, in addition to their regular per capita allocations.
Delta hot spot public health units have been successful in managing Delta variant outbreaks through a combination of testing, tracing, and isolating, as well as an extra push to get their populations fully vaccinated.
Vaccination is Ontario’s best protection against further Delta outbreaks across the province. On July 5, 2021, Ontario expanded second dose eligibility for all individuals aged 12 and over, surpassing its target to accelerate doses for all groups by the end of August.
The province’s acceleration of second doses outpaced its predicted rollout due to an increase in supply and readiness across all delivery channels, including hospitals, mass immunization clinics, mobile, pop-up and workplace clinics, pharmacies and primary care providers.
• To date, more than ten million vaccine first and second dose appointments have been made through the provincial booking system since its launch in March 2021.
• Ontario received 3.9 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 4.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in June, and is expected to receive approximately 3.54 million doses of Pfizer in July and 557,400 doses of Moderna for the first week of July. Ontario’s allocation of the Pfizer vaccine, meant to arrive during the first two weeks of July, will be 907,000 doses, down from the 1.7 million doses expected initially, with the remainder to arrive at the end of July.