The City of Toronto announced today it has partnered with volunteer-run initiative Vaccine Hunters Canada to help people find COVID-19 vaccine appointments at city-run clinics. In order to speed up the process of securing a vaccine appointment for eligible Toronto residents, the city will be providing Vaccine Hunters with a list of free next-day appointments at the end of each day so they can spread the word through their channels.
Vaccine availability is set to increase next week, and soon, free appointments at all nine city-run clinics will open up. Right now, the only city-run clinics with free appointments are Toronto Congress Centre and Cloverdale Mall. The week of May 10, all city-run clinics have availability.
NEW: we’re announcing a partnership between the City of Toronto and Vaccine Hunters Canada.
Starting today @VaxHuntersCan will share daily updates on available appointments at our City-run mass clinics. It’s a team effort.
Now, let’s get TO vaccinated. https://t.co/huMXLvrbnb
— Joe Cressy (@joe_cressy) April 28, 2021
If they are eligible to be vaccinated in Phase 2, people will still have to book their appointments at city-run clinics through the provincial booking system. The current criteria includes people 60 years old or older, people 45 years old or older who live in a Toronto hot spot, pregnant women, teachers who work and/or live in a hot spot and as of April 29, childcare workers working in licensed settings.
By collaborating with the organization, city staff hope to make vaccine appointments more easily accessible for Toronto residents and ultimately increase the number of vaccinated people to reduce the spread of the virus.
It’s insane to me that the entire country is relying on a random twitter page called “Vaccine Hunters Canada” to find a dose nearby.
Like what is the govt doing to help us! https://t.co/1XGIUwBmIM— Daryn Jones (@DarynJones) April 21, 2021
“Our Team Toronto vaccination efforts involves the city and Toronto Public Health, hospitals, community healthcare partners, community organizations, pharmacies and doctors,” says Mayor John Tory. “This is a huge, all hands-on deck effort and Vaccine Hunters Canada have stepped up to help people get vaccinated and navigate the different registration systems. We are excited to work with Vaccine Hunters to help get more people vaccinated.”
Pregnant women, teachers and childcare workers should call 1-833-943-3900 to book an appointment. So far, city-run clinics, hospitals, community healthcare clinics and pharmacies have administered a total of 1,104,855 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
