What is happening?
The Province’s online booking tool launched at the start of this week for community members 80 years of age and older to book appointments for their vaccines. As announced by the Province this morning, the online booking tool will be extended to all community members 75 years of age and older beginning Monday March 22nd. As the online booking tool currently only determines eligibility based on age, and transitioning from booking through SJHH, as of yesterday afternoon, all Indigenous adults in Hamilton can call the City’s COVID-19 Hotline to book a vaccination appointment.
Despite technical challenges earlier in the week, as of this morning over 8,600 eligible Hamiltonians have vaccine appointments over the coming week and there remain plenty of spots for people to book into. The link to the online booking tool is on the City’s website at www.hamilton.ca/VaccineBooking. The process is simple, all that is needed is a valid Ontario photo health card. If community members do not have access to the internet or a computer, or do not have a valid Ontario health photo card, they can call the Public Health Services COVID-19 Hotline at 905-974-9848, option 7. Due to potential call volumes expected at the call centre, we ask that those who are calling for an appointment are patient and call back if the lines are busy.
Current Vaccine Sites
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s (SJHH) West 5th COVID-19 vaccine clinic is continuing to vaccinate those in our community who are eligible by age as well as Indigenous adults, and adult chronic homecare recipients. SJHH has now administered over 8,500 doses at this site, and if vaccine shipments continue to arrive on time, will be increasing to 1,000 doses per day next week.
FirstOntario Centre is opening this Monday as a large-scale vaccination clinic. As earlier announced, beginning this Monday, March 22nd, the FirstOntario Centre will launch as a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination clinic serving the same groups as the SJHH clinic. As for all clinics, vaccinations are available on a by-appointment only basis, there will be no option for walk-ins. This clinic is anticipated to start administering vaccines at 700 doses/day for the week of March 22nd, and when operating at its full capacity can deliver approximately 3,000 vaccines per day. As you would have seen, the City of Hamilton was pleased to welcome Ontario’s Premier, the Honourable Doug Ford and Donna Skelly, MPP for Flamborough—Glanbrook, to the FirstOntario Centre yesterday for a tour of the soon-to-be-open large-scale vaccination clinic with Mayor Eisenberger and a number of City of Hamilton designates. We are pleased that interested Councillors were able to tour the clinic as well.
Hamilton Public Health Services’ mobile vaccine clinics are completing second doses for residents at low-risk retirement homes, and anticipate these will be completed by this Monday, March 22nd. The mobile clinic is currently confirming plans for the remainder of next week and details will be released early next week.
Pilot program vaccinating adults through primary care settings. A reminder that this pilot program started last weekend and is being managed by our primary care partners. A number of primary care settings are administering the AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD vaccine to those residents ages 60-64 (in 2021) who are in good health. Eligible residents are being contacted directly by their primary care physician’s office to book appointments if their physician is part of the pilot program. There are no other booking options for this pilot program, residents are asked to please not contact their primary care office for an appointment. By end of day Monday, it is estimated that more than 2,300 doses will have been administered through this pilot program. With the Province’s announcement today that the AstraZeneca vaccine can now be used for all over age 60 years, our primary care partners and ourselves are working with the Province on how the pilot may change and what further amounts of vaccine might be available.
Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) fixed-site clinic has been administering vaccine to healthcare workers from hospitals and the community. Healthcare workers can register to receive an appointment by visiting www.hamilton.ca/VaccineRegistration. Starting today, these registered healthcare workers will be emailed special tokens for the provincial portal so that they can the book into the HHS clinic through the portal. To date, HHS has now administered 39,452 doses at this site, and will continue to vaccinate approximately 1,000 people per day over the coming week.
By the numbers: doses-to-date
To date, in cooperation with our community partners, we have administered 64,100 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. As of end of day on March 22nd, it is anticipated that over 10,000 seniors in the community will have received first doses of vaccine. I am pleased to share with you that next week we will be delivering the highest volume of vaccine yet, averaging approximately 2,950 doses per day.
Additional Information
Brad Clark Report 
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