WINDSOR, ONT. -- Eligible Windsor-Essex residents between the ages of 60 and 64 can start booking COVID-19 vaccination appointments at many local pharmacies.
Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Health Christine Elliott and General Rick Hillier (retired), Chair of the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force, provided details on Wednesday.
With the arrival of 194,500 doses of the AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD vaccine, select pharmacies will begin booking appointments starting in three public health unit regions: Toronto, Windsor-Essex, and Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. The vaccine rollout will be expanded to more pharmacies in other regions of the province as supply increases.
“We are just ramping up and mobilizing even more members of Team Ontario in our pharmacies and primary care settings,” said Ford. “We have a plan to get vaccines into arms as quickly as possible in order to keep people safe and we will do that as long as we have a steady supply from the federal government.”
The province unveiled the list on Wednesday of more than 300 pharmacies that will be administering the AstraZeneca vaccine as part of the pilot project.
All vaccinations available through pharmacies will require an appointment to be made in advance. Eligible adults aged 60-64 (as defined by year of birth between 1957-1961), who are interested in booking an appointment, can visit ontario.ca/pharmacycovidvaccine to find a participating pharmacy and can contact the pharmacy to make an appointment.
Rexall and Costco pharmacies started booking Wednesday morning.
The doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that Ontario will receive were shipped from the Serum Institute of India earlier this month and are set to expire on April 2. Elliott she is confident that all of the doses will be administered prior to their expiry thanks to the use of hundreds of pharmacies.
Here’s a map of Windsor-Essex pharmacies offering the vaccine:
With files from CTVNewsToronto.ca.
