St. Joseph’s will stop calling to book COVID appointments March 14

Hamilton seniors who registered for a COVID vaccine should get a call back by March 14 to book an appointment.

It is important that residents answer phone calls when they are called back," public health said in a statement.

Roughly 7,600 seniors aged 85 and older registered through the city's hotline over 10 days before it was shut down Tuesday afternoon.

It's unknown how many have actually been vaccinated. Public health says it's more than 4,000 although that appears not to include the community mobile clinics, which could add as many as 1,400.

The West 5th Campus of St. Joseph's Healthcare has been vaccinating 550 to 650 seniors a day up from the 250 originally estimated.

In addition, community mobile clinics were expected to administer 200 more doses a day.

Call backs will stop on March 14 at 4 p.m. Those without an appointment at that time can use the province's online booking tool starting March 15 at Hamilton.ca/VaccineBooking.

Almost every system that's gone live across the country - across the world in fact - has had challenges," said Rick Hillier, the retired general in charge of Ontario's vaccination task force. Undoubtedly, we will have some."

Premier Doug Ford said, If the portal crashes, we'll get it back up."

They emphasized only those ages 80 and over can make an appointment.

If you are not 80 years old on Monday ... please do not call the customer service desk, do not go online to check what's there," said Hillier. Stay off those sites and give people who are trying to get a vaccination appointment an opportunity to actually do so."

The vaccination rollout has been described as a race with the fast-spreading variants. Hamilton had 128 presumed variant cases as of Wednesday and five confirmed B.1.1.7 infections, which is the variant that originated in the U.K.

Three of Hamilton's 29 ongoing outbreaks are linked to the variants, including Electromart Inc., AbleLiving Services York Supportive Housing and the West 5th Campus of St. Joseph's Healthcare.

The city reported 47 new COVID infections Wednesday, including one more case at the Barton Street jail. The Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre is now up to 72 cases.

The weekly rate of new cases per 100,000 increased to 65.

Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com