Doug Ford received 1st dose of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Friday
Posted April 9, 2021 9:10 am.
Last Updated April 9, 2021 12:23 pm.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday morning.
Ford got the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot at a pharmacy in Etobicoke just after 10 a.m.
He becomes latest politician in Canada to be publicly vaccinated against the virus.
When asked how he felt after receiving the shot, Ford said “good” before making a plea for others to go out and get vaccinated.
“We hit over another 100,000 vaccinations yesterday and we’re ramping up, so things are looking really, really positive out there but we just have to keep going,” he said. “Vaccines are coming in …we’re getting into high priority neighbourhoods, going in there and vaccinating people within their area but we’re also going into a lot of large employers right across the hot areas.”
The province said it administered more than 105,000 vaccines on Thursday, bringing the total to just under three-million doses given to date. A total of 328,598 people across the province have been fully vaccinated.
Ontario health minister Christine Elliott received her first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on camera last week at a Toronto pharmacy.
Elliott said she would be getting the shot publicly to help combat vaccine hesitancy and prove to residents that the shot is safe and that it saves lives.
The drugmaker recently updated the efficacy data for its vaccine, saying the shot is 76 per cent effective against mild symptoms of the virus and 100 per cent effective at preventing severe disease.
The AstraZeneca shot is currently available to anyone 55 or older at select Ontario pharmacies.
RELATED: COVID-19 vaccine bookings start Friday for some people 50+ in Toronto, Peel Region
The province has released a list of postal codes for COVID-19 hotspots where vaccines are now available to anyone 50 and older, and many are in the GTA.
Ford announced Wednesday that mobile teams will deliver vaccines to hotspot residents aged 18 and older in congregate settings, residential buildings, faith-based centres and at large workplaces. Regions will be selected based on patterns of transmission, severe illness and mortality from COVID-19.
The province’s immunization task force says the plan will take some time to launch.
People aged 60 and over can now book COVID-19 vaccine appointments in every region across Ontario.
