Change in vaccine eligibility means Toronto may not be able to meet demand, Tory warns, as new variant concerns mount

Thestar.com
May 18, 2021
David Rider

At a time when concern is growing over new, more contagious COVID-19 variants from India, Toronto will not likely have enough vaccines for all the additional residents becoming eligible to get one this week, Mayor John Tory said Monday.

“I think it’s fairly clear that the capacity in terms of vaccine availability ... will likely not match the number of people seeking to get a vaccination,” Tory told reporters after a morning news conference.

He made the comments shortly after Premier Doug Ford’s government announced that, starting Tuesday at 8 a.m., all Ontarians aged 18 or older this year can make vaccine appointments through the provincial booking system.

General eligibility had been restricted to people ages 40 and older.

Despite supply concerns, Tory said, residents should still try to book vaccine appointments at city clinics through the province’s booking system and also try to book with a pharmacy and through local hospitals and health agencies until they get an appointment.

The dramatic increase in the number of eligible Ontarians comes the same week provincial vaccine supplies to Toronto, Peel and other health units with COVID-19 hot spots are plunging by about 40 per cent.

That’s due to the end of a two-week allocation of half of Ontario’s vaccine supplies to public health units with COVID-19 hot spots. For Toronto, the drop affects the nine city-run clinics plus hospitals and health partners running mobile and pop-up clinics in the hardest-hit postal codes where people age 18-plus have already been eligible for immunization.

The Ford government said it was time to return to per-capita allocation across Ontario and suggested a boost in vaccine supply coming from the federal government -- Canada is supposed to get 4.5 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines this week -- will make up for the end of extra doses for the hardest-hit postal codes.

While the city’s nine mass immunization clinics can administer as many as 98,000 vaccines a week, the reduced supply from the province will mean the clinics will only administer 65,000 this week, said Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, head of emergency operations and the city’s vaccination task force, speaking at the city’s COVID-19 update from city hall in the afternoon.

Pegg said the city clinics are ready to ramp back up as soon as more vaccines become available.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, said Monday the new variants, believed to have originated in India are now present in about 40 countries, including Canada, with at least 36 cases in Ontario.

De Villa said there is a “realistic possibility” that the variants are as much as 50 per cent more transmissible than B.1.1.7, which is 50 per cent more transmissible than the original virus. Early information suggests existing vaccines and immunity acquired from past infections may also be less effective against the newest variants.

The World Health Organization has called the variants a global concern, de Villa said.

“I’m not predicting the emerging variants will do in Ontario what B.1.1.7 is still doing -- but I accept it’s possible and we should do all we can to prevent history from repeating itself,” de Villa said.

The province’s own science advisory table, Toronto’s public health boards and local leaders from across the GTA-Hamilton area had pleaded with the provincial government to extend the extra vaccine supply for two additional weeks to keep driving down case counts and hasten the end of the pandemic.

Tory renewed that call Monday, saying the drop to age 18-plus availability took the city by surprise. Pegg on Friday told the Star that the combination of reduced supply and wider eligibility, thought then to be possibly age 30-plus, could make it impossible for some people to get appointments for the city clinics.

The 2016 census found there were 848,575 people aged 20 to 39 living in Toronto. According to city data, about half of Torontonians in that age range have already been vaccinated.

“Yes,” Tory said, “it is a concern that with demand being added each and every day, sometimes with more consultation than others, that there’s only so much vaccine to go around,” adding he wants as many people vaccinated as soon as possible to ease the current lockdown and allow people to get back to normal life.

But, he said, if Ontario doesn’t increase vaccine supply to the city, it’s possible Torontonians getting the “great news” of vaccine eligibility will be disappointed “when they turn to those who are actually in a position to get needles in arms, namely in our case the city of Toronto and our health partners, and find that vaccine has not been increased accordingly...

“If we’re going to really attack (COVID-19) where it still is a continuing challenge of an acute nature in the city of Toronto, Peel and hot spots like that, then the vaccine should go with the increased demand they’re creating.”

Toronto is not alone with supply concerns.

After meeting online, mayors and regional chairs from the GTA-Hamilton area said in a statement while they welcome the age drop, “we will therefore require additional supply of vaccine from the provincial and federal governments if we are to be able to meet the increased demand for appointments.”

Toronto Public Health said the vaccine allocation for all clinics in the city this week is 179,020 vaccine doses, down from 337,170 doses last week. Peel officials who saw the region’s weekly allotment drop to 87,790 doses from 149,760 doses last week are also calling on Ford to extend the hot spot allocation.