With more than 76 per cent of Ontarian adults having received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and over 30 per cent fully immunized, Ontario is accelerating second dose eligibility to all individuals aged 18 and over across the province.
Starting Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:00 a.m., all Ontarians aged 18 and over who received their first dose of an mRNA vaccine will be eligible to book an appointment to receive their second ahead of schedule. This will accelerate second dose eligibility for approximately 1.5 million Ontarians.
The province continues to take action to further protect Delta hot spots by accelerating second doses and expanding second dose coverage. Between June 14 and June 23, 2021 more than 1,090,000 doses have been administered to people living in Delta hot spot public health units, and a total of 230,000 additional doses were provided to Delta hot spots for the week of June 21st, 2021.
Starting this week, provincially supported mobile teams have begun returning to community and workplace sites to support second dose clinics in Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Toronto, Peel and York region hot spots. Two pop-up teams and additional vaccination staff are also helping to accelerate first and second doses in priority communities in Waterloo.
Beginning Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 8:00 a.m., youth aged 12 to 17 who live in a Delta hot spot (Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Peel, Porcupine, Simcoe-Muskoka, Toronto, Waterloo, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph and York public health units) are eligible to book an accelerated second dose appointment through the provincial booking system, directly through public health units that use their own booking system, and through participating pharmacies.
In all other public health units, second doses for youth remain as they are currently booked at this time. To support a safe return to school in September, the province will be looking to accelerate youth second dose bookings following individuals aged 18 and over.
To ensure maximum protection against COVID-19 and the Delta variant, Ontarians are encouraged to get vaccinated as soon as they can and to receive their second dose within the recommended interval.