TORONTO — Ontario will send half its vaccine supply to hot spots for the next two weeks and hopes to make all adults eligible for COVID-19 shots by the last week of May thanks to the expected arrival of millions of doses.
The acceleration in the vaccine effort was announced Thursday as the province’s science advisers said cases rates were high but decreasing under a stay-at-home order, although further limits on essential workplaces were needed to bring the devastating third wave under control.
The government has been criticized for a slow and bumpy vaccine rollout while cases have soared but Health Minister Christine Elliott said a massive influx of doses in the coming weeks would help the province emerge from the pandemic.
“The way out of the pandemic is vaccines, and a light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter every day,” she said.
The province will send half its vaccine supply for the first two weeks of May to 114 postal codes identified as hot spots, an increase from the 25 per cent allocation those areas currently get.
The move follows a recommendation from the province’s science advisers to allocate shots based on transmission rate rather than age group to reduce hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19.
The government said it will return to a per capita distribution for vaccines on the week of May 17.
Ontario is also working to lower age eligibility for the vaccine throughout the month of May, saying those 50 and older can book shots at mass vaccination clinics starting Friday.
If supply holds, the province expects to make those 18 and older eligible for a shot at mass sites provincewide on the week of May 24.
In hot spots, the province said those 18 and older will be able to book vaccines at mass sites starting Monday. Pop up clinics in hot-spot communities have so far seen long lineups of those 18 and older hoping to get a shot.
Also on Monday, the government said it will open vaccine eligibility to those with high-risk health conditions, such as obesity, developmental disabilities and treatments requiring immunosuppression. A group of employees who cannot work from home –including food manufacturing workers and foster care workers – also become eligible.
Dr. Peter Juni, scientific director of the province’s COVID-19 science advisory table, said the government was moving in the right direction but needed to do more for hot spots.
“We just need to be careful that we are not stopping and saying after two weeks, ‘OK, we did it, and now we can redistribute on a per capita basis,'” he said.
He urged the province to be flexible in its timeline for prioritizing hot spots, particularly if appointments don’t fill up as quickly as the government anticipates.
The vaccine developments were followed Monday by the province’s science advisers saying Ontario needs to maintain efforts to fight COVID-19, particularly since workplace mobility remains too high.
Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the group, said case rates are flattening but pockets of growth remain in hot spots, with positivity rates high in Peel Region and Toronto.
“There’s clear reason for hope, but this hope requires a commitment, dead-set determination to see the job through,” Brown said, urging people to ensure that the “third wave is the last wave.”
Additional limits on essential businesses and a sick-day program that helps workers isolate will help limit worker mobility and drive down rates further, he said.
Those comments came as the province fast-tracked and passed legislation that provides workers with three paid sick days to self-isolate.
Critics have said the government program falls far short of the 10 to 14 days required to isolate due to COVID-19, and will not help bend the curve of infection among essential workers.
Asked if the provincial program will be adequate to meet the most optimistic case projections, Brown said no.
“We’ve modeled the strong, effective sick pay as, beginning immediately, lasting for essentially two work weeks, so 10 days, and being at a level that allows people to not have to make difficult choices,” he said.
Brown stressed that the province’s health care system is under “incredible pressure” as it grapples with record high admissions and crowded intensive care units.
“Our healthcare system is no longer functioning normally,” he said.
The ministry of health said there were 2,248 COVID-19 patients in hospital Thursday, with 884 in intensive care and 620 on a ventilator.
The group is also increasingly concerned about the so-called “missing patient,” Brown said, referring to people who are ill but not coming to hospital for treatment.
The province’s surgical backlog has now reached 257,536 procedures and will be an “enormous challenge” to clear, Brown said.
Brown warned as well that while cases have started to decline, strict measures will likely be needed past the time when the current stay-at-home order is to expire.
“If you want to continue to push the cases down you need to … probably maintain public health measures,” he said.
Ontario reported 3,871 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday and 41 new deaths, a figure that pushed the province’s overall death toll from the virus past 8,000.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2021.
Shawn Jeffords, The Canadian Press
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