Provincial vaccine booking system open to priority groups

The provincial booking system for COVID-19 vaccines is now live, usurping the Simcoe Muskoka system, for anyone 80 and older, the adult Indigenous community and other health care priority groups.
“We have a great opportunity right now with immunization to be able to proceed with vaccinating the population,” said medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner. “We’ve made an excellent start in protecting those most vulnerable in our long-term care facilities so that outbreaks in the long-term care facilities and retirement homes are way down and mortality, though it continues, is greatly reduced compared with the past.”
Health partners are proceeding with immunizing the entire adult population over the weeks and months to come, working in sequence through the priority groups identified by the province.
“We’re at a point now where we want to get ahead of the pandemic and not have it swell into another wave while we achieve protection for everybody through immunization and bring us to a much better place late in the spring and into the summer,” said Gardner in his weekly press briefing.
There were some glitches when the booking system launched, which caused some confusion for people.
Not all the regional clinics were initially uploaded to the system, but that has been rectified, and 10 people were booked into a Bracebridge clinic that wasn’t even scheduled.
Gardner reported that Simcoe Muskoka has received its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine, which is easier to handle, and is being administered through mobile clinics at seniors congregate settings.
The health unit is also participating in an AstraZeneca pilot program. Nine family health teams are participating and will be contacting people aged 60-64 who fit into priority groups. (Residents are asked not to contact their family doctor.)
For information about Ontario’s vaccine booking system, please see Ontario.ca, or call the Provincial Vaccine Information Line at 1-888-999-6488, Monday to Sunday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
People 80 years of age and over can now book online at www.ontario.ca/bookvaccine or by telephone at 1-888-999-6488. Eligible first phase groups also include adult recipients of chronic home care, essential caregivers of residents in LTC or retirement homes, high-priority health care workers and Indigenous adults.
First and second vaccination appointments will be arranged at the same time.
“Please be patient when trying to book an appointment,” said Simcoe-Grey MPP Jim Wilson. “It can take time to access the system. Only those who are eligible, or helping somebody who is, should be making appointments in this first phase.”
People eligible to book appointments will be asked to provide their provincial health card details, birth date, postal code and email address or phone number.
Until vaccines are widely available and enough people have been fully vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus, people are asked to:
• continue to follow local public health advice and restrictions
• practise physical distancing
• use masks or face coverings
• stay home as much as possible and only go out for necessities
The next phase of Ontario’s vaccination roll-out for people in other age groups is expected to begin in April. Depending on supply, Ontario has the resources to administer 4.8 million vaccines per month.

COVID-19 vaccination pre-registration system opens for those eligible 

Pre-registration for select eligible groups as per the province’s phase one roll out plan is now open on the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s website.
Eligible groups who can pre-register include highest, very high and high priority frontline health care workers in accordance with the Ministry of Health’s Guidance on Health Care Worker Prioritization; essential caregivers of residents in long-term care and retirement homes; all Indigenous adults and their household members; and adult recipients of chronic home care. To pre-register, or for more information about COVID-19 and the vaccine roll out visit www.smdhu.org.
Pre-registration helps the health unit collect information about appointments quickly and easily as vaccine supply becomes available. Once a person has pre-registered on the SMDHU website, they will be placed in the queue to receive a vaccine appointment. When an appointment is available, the person will be sent an email invitation from the province with a booking code to book their appointment on the provincial booking system. Note that this does not happen immediately and may take days or weeks depending on vaccine supply and demand for appointments. All appointment booking in Simcoe Muskoka will be done through the online provincial system.  
Please note that adults 80 years of age and older (born anytime in 1941 or prior) are also eligible at this time; however, they cannot pre-register via SMDHU’s website. They will be able to book immunization appointments directly via the online provincial booking system or by telephone to the Provincial Vaccine Information Line.

This week’s highlights:

• As of presstime, 260 local cases have been tested positive for the COVID-19 variant of concern UK B.1.1.7 (UK), seven cases have tested positive for the P.1 variant of concern (Brazil), one has tested positive for the B.1.351 variant of concern (South Africa) and an additional 618 cases have screened positive (awaiting confirmatory testing)
• Over 61,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Simcoe Muskoka. This includes over 16,500 individuals who have received both of the required doses of the vaccine. In addition, over 3,000 (or 94 per cent) long-term care residents and over 3,400 (or 95 per cent) retirement home residents have received their first dose. Over 1,300 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine have also been administered to adults 60-64 years by four Family Health Teams in Simcoe Muskoka.
• There have been 116 new cases reported to the health unit for the current week. There were 297 new cases reported to the health unit last week, which was approximately 40 per cent higher than the 213 cases reported for the week of Feb. 28.
• There were 32 COVID-19 related deaths in February, which is the second highest number of deaths in a single month since the start of the pandemic. In March, three Simcoe Muskoka residents have died from COVID-19.
• The vast majority of COVID-19 cases in Simcoe Muskoka have recovered from the infection. Most COVID-19 cases in Simcoe Muskoka are from the Barrie and South Simcoe areas. Click here to view the epidemic curve by municipality.
Seniors 80 years of age and older had the highest rate of infection in January, with over 90 per cent of these cases associated with an institutional outbreak. Young adults (18-34 years) had the highest rate of infection in February and continue to have the highest rates so far in March.