Toronto asks province to let anyone aged 60 and older get COVID-19 vaccination -- lowering threshold a full decade

Thestar.com
April 1, 2021
David Rider

Toronto is asking the Ontario government to let all people who will be aged 60 and over this year be vaccinated against COVID-19 at city clinics, down a decade from the current cutoff, citing grave danger from virus variants.

Mayor John Tory told reporters at a Wednesday briefing that he made the request to Premier Doug Ford. “He wholeheartedly supported this change and we hope to announce details of when this will happen very soon.

“We really want to just get on with administering more vaccinations faster and our participation in the provincial (appointment booking) system requires us to make this request,” which would require the province to change which health cards and matching birthdates are accepted by their online portal, Tory said.

“This change will ensure that we continue to fill up all available appointments and work to get as many eligible people vaccinated as our supply allows throughout the holiday weekend and beyond.”

Tory said he asked provincial officials to make the change as soon as possible and said he hoped it would be done within “hours” if not days. An earlier request to lower the age threshold to 70 was approved by the province.

Toronto started opening mass immunization clinics March 17 for residents 80 and older. After an initial rush of appointments quickly slowed, the eligibility age was dropped to 75 and then, when the same thing happened, again last week to 70.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s public health chief, announced 883 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday. Three hundred and thirty people are in hospital, up 28 from Monday, and 53 are in intensive care units. Cases involving fast-spreading variants continued to rise.

Urging people to get vaccinated, de Villa said: “If the current situation is described as a race, the variants are ahead by a mile.” Increased pressures on the health care system are a very serious concern, she added.

As both Tory and de Villa called for residents to continue following health advice and repeating the message that individuals were their own best protection while urging them not to gather, patios and other shops remained open for business with Toronto still in a modified “grey” zone under the provincial framework.

Earlier Wednesday, Tory said people across the region, or all of Ontario, need to “hunker down” for “a really sustained period of a couple of weeks” to halt virus spread. The mayor stopped short of explicitly calling for a provincewide lockdown which could include retail and school closures.

On CP24, Tory was asked if any new lockdown should be provincewide. Residents get confused, he replied, by different regional rules for what can open and gathering limits, and with a patchwork of zones and rules, people can drive or even walk to neighbouring municipalities to take advantage of looser restrictions.

“What we need is a really sustained period of a couple of weeks where everybody just says ‘You know what, we are going to defeat this thing,’” Tory said, adding that by spring and summer “we want to be happier.”

People need to say “‘We’re going to sort of hunker down and defeat this,’” he said, “and I think we need to move quickly to do whatever it is we’re going to do.”

What’s not helpful, the mayor added, is “long periods of uncertainty and discussion” about what steps governments will take to halt soaring infection rates.

“We need to make the tough decisions and then we need to adhere to them, all of us, notwithstanding fatigue” residents have with virus-related restrictions, he said.

Later, at a vaccine-production news conference with Premier Doug Ford and other officials, Tory was asked if he’s calling for a return to tight lockdown.

“What I am calling for more than anything else is the absolute sustained 100 per cent co-operation of people,” to socialize only with fellow household members over the long weekend and beyond, wear masks and physically distance, he said.

“I’m most of all in favour of solidarity of people in saying we are going to work together collectively.”

Ford, asked about rising daily infection rates and a record of 421 COVID-19 patients in Ontario intensive care units, said Wednesday: “Stay tuned, we’ll have an announcement tomorrow.” A day before, he had said, “Folks, be prepared. Don’t make plans for Easter ... I won’t hesitate to lock things down if we have to.”

Later Tuesday Dr. Nathan Stall, a Mount Sinai Hospital geriatrician and member of the Ontario’s science advisory table, told the Star: “I’d be shocked if we were not in lockdown shortly before or after this weekend.”

With highly contagious COVID-19 variants surging, filling ICUs with younger adults, Toronto and other regions hard hit by the virus are in grave danger, Stall said.

Mass vaccinations have not happened fast enough to beat the variants back, Stall and other COVID-19 experts told the Star.

The city announced Wednesday more than a half-million doses of vaccine have been administered in the city, including two doses to some people. But overall only about 12 per cent of Torontonians have received anything.

The mayor, who will turn 67 in May, revealed that he is waiting for an appointment to get the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine -- already available to anyone who will be 60 or over this year -- at a pharmacy; he has been eligible since March 22.

“I ... am on the waiting list right now for the drug stores for my own vaccination and they haven’t answered my application, you know for about a week, and that’s just a problem with supply,” of vaccine, Tory said.

“There are many, many people like me that I’m sure are in that situation, who want to be vaccinated who are eligible to be vaccinated, who can’t be for one reason or another.”

The city has also launched a campaign to reach people in the Black, South Asian communities and those with disabilities, spending $370,000 for outreach efforts through community partners and multilingual advertising.

Eligible seniors can book appointments at the city clinics via the provincial booking website or by phone at 1-888-999-6488 (TTY 1-866-797-0007). Appointments at clinics run by hospitals or health agencies can be booked via www.vaccineto.ca or by calling 1-888-385-1910.

People eligible for AstraZeneca vaccines can book through participating pharmacies at https://covid-19.ontario.ca/vaccine-locations.