Toronto expands reach of hot-spot vaccination strategy to get more shots in arms

Thestar.com
May 20, 2021

Toronto has added seven new postal codes to its hot-spot strategy to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates in parts of the city where uptake has been slow.

The postal codes include M5T, which covers parts of Kensington Market and Chinatown, as well as four postal codes in Northwest Toronto: M6A, M6E, M6N and M9R. The postal codes of M1H in Scarborough and M3A in North York will also be sites for increased vaccine supply as part of the city’s so-called “sprint strategy” to get more shots in arms. The change comes after a Toronto Star story highlighting the disparity of vaccination rates in the city’s neighbourhoods.

Toronto’s medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa said the decision to add or remove neighbourhoods from the strategy is made based on vaccine uptake data and the rate of COVID incidences across different parts of the city.

“It’s the combination of those two pieces of data that help us to inform how best to situate efforts on a go-forward basis ... it’s all about where do vaccines have yet to be taken up appropriately and where do we expect that our efforts will have benefit in terms of protection to the people of Toronto,” de Villa said.

On Friday, Kensington-Chinatown recorded the lowest vaccination rates in the city, at only 34.8 per cent. Meanwhile, in Etobicoke’s affluent Kingsway South, 66.6 per cent of the population aged 18 and up was vaccinated, a rate higher than the city average of about 54 per cent.

As of Monday, Kensington-Chinatown’s vaccination rates remain lower than the city average of 60.1 per cent, at 47.9 per cent. Willowdale East currently has the lowest vaccination rate in the city at 43.4 per cent. In East Toronto, Centennial Scarborough has the highest vaccination rate, at 71 per cent.

Between April 27 and May 17, Kensington-Chinatown recorded 70 cases of COVID-19 and a rate of 390 cases per 100,000, according to city data.

Toronto Board of Health Chair Joe Cressy said that based on the success of vaccine uptake in other parts of the city through the sprint strategy, additional areas have been added and he’s “thrilled” to see Kensington, Chinatown and Alexandra Park now sites for increased vaccine access.

While the approach to evaluating areas of highest risk is data-led -- and includes factors like COVID incidence rates, COVID hospitalizations and vaccine rates -- it’s also related to demographic factors, like the proportion of racialized and low-income residents, he said.

Based on the 2016 census, the median household income of residents of Kensington-Chinatown was $44,216, well below the city average of $65,829. The visible minority population was higher than the city average of 51.5 per cent, at 60.3 per cent.

Cressy added that on-the-ground grassroots outreach, coupled with allocating additional vaccine supply and community mobilization, is what makes the sprint strategy effective.

“What’s critical is having that grassroots local community outreach, knocking on doors in multiple languages,” Cressy said. In Chinatown, that means teams knocking on the doors of buildings like 34 Oxford and 73 Augusta, where many Chinese residents live. “It means going door to door, days in advance of the clinics, speaking in Cantonese and Mandarin, to make sure people know about the clinic, and that transportation is arranged.”

To date, there have been 3,285 COVID-19 deaths in the city. Toronto Public Health is reporting 751 new cases of COVID-19 in the city on Wednesday, however due to a technical issue with provincial laboratory data, the case count is likely overreported. There are 1,018 people hospitalized.

De Villa said the city has a “fair amount of flexibility” in adding or removing priority postal codes to its spring strategy moving forward, as vaccine rates and COVID case counts change.

She added that while mobile and pop-up efforts as part of the strategy “form an important part of our vaccination efforts,” there are vaccine channels available to the residents of Toronto that go beyond those venues, including nine city-run clinics and an increasing number of pharmacies offering vaccines.

“I would certainly encourage all residents of Toronto to find the channel that’s easiest for them to access and to take advantage of the protective benefit of vaccines for themselves and those around them,” de Villa said.

The province identified 114 neighbourhoods most hard-hit by COVID as hot spots on April 13. As of May 3, residents aged 18 and over living in hot-spot postal codes have been able to book a vaccine.

The city launched its sprint strategy in mid-April to target 13 priority hot spots in Scarborough, the northwest corner and Thorncliffe Park with the highest COVID rates and lowest vaccination uptake.

On May 12, it added nine more, including M5A. The area includes Regent Park, which was on the lower end of the scale last week at a 44.3 per cent vaccination rate, and is now at 55.3 per cent. The total vaccine coverage across the 22 priority neighbourhoods has reached 56.6 per cent, Mayor John Tory said Wednesday.

In total, the sprint strategy now includes 29 priority postal codes.