Toronto’s 7th mass vaccination clinic opens in North York, Tory pushes for paid sick days
Posted April 5, 2021 6:34 am.
Last Updated April 5, 2021 2:09 pm.
Toronto’s seventh mass vaccination clinic opens its doors this week.
The Hangar Sports and Events Centre in North York will begin administering doses on Monday morning and the clinic is already fully booked for day one.
The clinic, located at Downsview Park in North York, will operate seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is currently accepting bookings for anyone 60 and older.
The clinic is opening at full capacity and will be able to vaccinate up to 1,800 people per day pending the availability of vaccine supply. Teams of up to 40 immunizers will work to vaccinate five people per hour.
“This additional mass immunization clinic at The Hangar will help us vaccinate an additional 1,800 people every day with the current vaccine supply and we will be able to ramp that up as supply allows. I encourage every resident who is eligible to sign up to get their vaccine as soon as possible,” said Mayor John Tory.
“We are working to get everyone vaccinated as quickly as vaccine supply allows so that we can stop COVID-19.”
Anyone eligible can book appointments through the “Book a Vaccine” button on toronto.ca/covid-19 or book by phone through the Provincial Vaccine Information Line at 1-888-999-6488.
RELATED: Almost 2.2 million more vaccine doses coming this week as COVID-19 cases spike
It is the sixth city-run clinic to begin operation:
- Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 255 Front St. W.
- Toronto Congress Centre, 650 Dixon Rd.
- Scarborough Town Centre, 300 Borough Dr.
- Malvern Community Recreation Centre, 30 Sewells Rd.
- Mitchell Field Arena, 89 Church Ave.
The mass vaccination clinic at the East York Town Centre in Thorncliffe Park is run by East Toronto Health Partners.
All Toronto clinics are now vaccinating residents aged 60 and older as of last week.
Three more city-run clinics are preparing to open, awaiting direction from the province and available vaccine supply.
- Carmine Stefano Community Centre, 3100 Weston Road
- Cloverdale Mall, 250 The East Mall
- North Toronto Memorial Community Centre, 200 Eglinton Avenue West
With Ontario preparing to move into the next phase of its vaccine rollout, GTA mayors and doctors are urging the government to rethink the distribution to better target essential workers.
Mayors from Toronto and Peel, the two hardest-hit regions in the province throughout the pandemic, are calling for a re-tooling of vaccine distribution to prioritize neighbourhood and workplace hotspots instead of just vaccinating by age group.
Tory says the federal and provincial governments should work together to improve the paid sick day program to help workers stay home and self-isolate.
“We hope to be able to take it to workplaces … where we know there’s a higher risk just given all the circumstances, and to other areas where we know people are more vulnerable,” Tory said.
“We’re working very hard on plans to do that.”
The Ontario government has said that it will not duplicate the paid sick leave program run by the federal government.
But Tory says the rising case counts show that it is time to reconsider that approach.
“If paid sick days time hadn’t come before this … then the time has certainly come now when we’re in the third wave, and it is taking an even worse toll, it would seem, in terms of ICU occupancy, and hospital overload,” Tory said.
Ontario’s vaccine rollout began in December and focused initially on immunizing some of the province’s oldest residents in long-term care and healthcare workers.
In recent months, it has shifted in descending order through the oldest age groups in the province, with Toronto now starting to give the shot to people 60 years and older at its six mass vaccination sites.
Toronto’s top doctor says workers need both targeted vaccination clinics and paid sick days as protections against the virus.
Dr. Eileen da Villa also called the rising COVID-19 case rates in the city “horrific”, stressing that the daily numbers are headed in the wrong direction.
“We need both the protections for workers for paid sick leave so that they can take the right action when they feel unwell without having to worry for their family’s welfare,” she said. “And of course, we need a vaccine.”
The province will vaccinate essential workers as part of Phase 2 of its vaccine rollout, which is scheduled to begin soon.
With files from the Canadian Press
