Ontario Plans To Have All LTC Staff & Residents In High-Risk Areas Vaccinated By Jan 21

Ontario says that all residents, health-care workers, and essential caregivers at long-term care homes in Toronto, Peel, York, and Windsor-Essex will get their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by January 21.

Announcing the guarantee in a statement released on Tuesday, the provincial government said that over 53,000 people have been vaccinated in the province so far and that more doses are on their way.

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"Our Vaccination Distribution Task Force, led by General Rick Hillier, has put a plan in place to get these doses distributed and administered as quickly as possible and that plan is working," said Ontario's Minister of Health Christine Elliott in the statement.

The province has now started directly vaccinating people in care homes with the Moderna vaccine, which is more transportable than the Pfizer vaccine.

"Over 4,000 doses to 26 long-term care homes of the Moderna vaccine are planned to be administered between January 4 and January 6," the statement reads.

The Ontario government had previously been criticized for their rollout of the vaccine, with the province originally deciding to withhold half of their doses in case of a disruption in the supply chain.

In phase one of the vaccine roll-out, Ontario's most vulnerable populations are being prioritized.

The province has said that priorities for the next two phases of vaccine distribution are still being discussed.