Ontarians 60 and up eligible for 4th COVID-19 vaccine beginning Thursday
It's booster time again in Ontario.
Fourth shots of COVID-19 vaccines begin Thursday in Ontario for the general population age 60 and up and for First Nations, Metis and Inuit over 18, along with members of their households.
The move comes as hospitalizations for the rapidly spreading virus rose above 1,000 for the first time in weeks on Tuesday as a sixth wave of the pandemic takes deeper hold following an end to most pandemic restrictions in March.
As we continue to live with COVID-19, we are using every tool available to manage the virus and reduce its impact on our hospitals and health system, including by expanding the use of booster doses," Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a statement Wednesday.
I encourage everyone who's eligible to get boosted as soon as you're able."
The recommended interval between third and fourth shots is five months.
Bookings can be made through the provincial vaccination online portal by calling 1-833-943-3900, through regional health units with their own appointment systems or directly through participating pharmacies and primary care clinics.
Elliott has maintained voluntary masking in most public indoor spaces, use of the anti-viral drug Paxlovid, along with expanded hospital capacity, are sufficient to handle the sixth wave, although Quebec and Prince Edward Island have decided to extend mandatory indoor masking.
Epidemiologist Todd Coleman of Wilfrid Laurier University told the Star that expanding eligibility for second boosters is a little late" given that Ontario's chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore warned the end of most restrictions would result in a rise in cases.
The latest wave driven by the 30 per cent more contagious Omicron BA.2 sub-variant has been pushing cases upwards for weeks. In the last seven days, infections confirmed by limited PCR testing are up almost 27 per cent and hospitalizations by 38 per cent.
Ontario's last restrictions, which require masks on public transit and in hospitals, for example, are slated to expire April 27.
Opposition parties say the government should be guaranteeing more than the legal minimum three sick days now provided to workers without benefits and doing a better job of promoting third boosters in the roughly four in 10 adults who haven't had one yet, along with getting more second doses into children aged 5 to 11.
Fourth doses have previously been made available to nursing and retirement home residents, people with compromised immune systems and those on chemotherapy.
Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1