York Region to expand hot spot vaccines, as it ramps up campaign to boost supply
Medical officer of health says residents and workers aged 35+ in 16 hot spots will be eligible for the vaccine, if the supplies allow
Newmarkettoday.ca
April 30, 2021
Jessica Owen
If you live or work in one of York Region’s hot spots and are 35+, starting next week you could be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
During the region’s special council meeting on Thursday morning, York Region’s medical officer of health Dr. Karim Kurji provided a vaccine update to regional council, adding more hot spots to the list of vaccine eligible, as well as expanding eligibility to those who work in those hot spot areas.
“All together, we will have 16 hot spot areas that we will be essentially immunizing the populations in the 35+ (age range),” said Kurji. “We’re going to be moving over to (those who) live or work in the hot spot areas, as this will make a lot of difference.”
There are 13 hot spot postal codes identified in York Region by the province: L0J (Vaughan), L3S (Markham), L3T (Markham), L4B (Richmond Hill), L4E (Richmond Hill), L4H (Vaughan), L4J (Vaughan), L4K (Vaughan), L4L (Vaughan), L6A (Vaughan), L6B (Markham), L6C (Markham) and L6E (Markham).
In addition to those, York Region has determined three more hot spots that will be targeted on the basis of local analysis: L9N in East Gwillimbury (previously reported), L4C in Richmond Hill and L3L in Vaughan.
Due to a lack of vaccine supply, York Region has provided vaccinations in only six of the hot spots, while also limiting availability to residents age 35 and older.
Kurji noted that more detailed information on the new eligibility groups would be sent out on Monday, with plans to open up bookings for vaccines to the newly eligible groups as of Tuesday.
However, he also sought to temper expectations of opening up new eligibility groups with a warning about vaccine supply.
“York Region, with a population of 1.2 million, will be receiving 127,000 doses for each of the next two weeks,” said Kurji. “After those two weeks, our allocation drops back to about 52,000 per week. I just want to dampen any expectations we may have for the moment.”
“We may be hearing we’re going to be getting lots more vaccines come end of May and June, but at this point, our allocations remain fairly low,” he said.
Kurji explained that as vaccine distribution is based on both population and number of hot spots, York Region is at a disadvantage over similarly sized regions.
“Unfortunately, this calculation doesn’t serve us too well,” he said. “Peel, on the other hand, with a population of 1.5 million, will be receiving more than two times our allocation of 216,000, and they have 25 hot spots. Toronto’s population of 2.9 million will be receiving more than three times the amount we would be receiving at 404,000 doses with 53 hot spots.”
Kurji said during his update that due to the vaccine shortage in York Region, the public health unit would be closing the Georgina Ice Palace, Canada’s Wonderland and Richmond Green Centre clinics on May 3. He said most clinics across the region were expected to be operating at near-full capacity the week of May 4.
“Given these limitations in vaccine supply, we are not likely to be doing any 18+ pop-up clinics for the moment. We will revisit that situation once we get more vaccines,” he said.
At the end of the meeting, York Region council voted unanimously in favour of sending a letter to the prime minister, premier, Ontario Minister of Health, local MPs and MPPs asking them to support council’s position that the current vaccine distribution policy creates inequity for York Region residents in hot spot areas.
“We require senior levels of government to do more in the procurement and distribution of vaccines,” said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti in a York Region news release. “York Region is currently facing a surge in COVID-19 cases with an increase in variants of concern. The most effective tool to win the race against variants is the equitable distribution and increased supply of COVID-19 vaccines.”
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