Ontario makes first vaccine shot a priority
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Ontario’s priority for COVID-19 vaccines will be to get a first shot into as many residents as possible, Health Minister Christine Elliott says.
Beginning Wednesday, the province plans to extend the period between the required two vaccine doses by up to four months.
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This measure means more people will begin developing protection against COVID-19 sooner, although they’ll have to wait months for full inoculation.
“We want to make sure that we can get as many needles into people’s arms as possible,” Elliott said Monday. “So it’s more important for us in Ontario right now to make sure that we spread out and cover as much of the population as possible with the first dose, asking people to still follow public health (measures) … wearing a mask if you’re going out.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States has issued new guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated.
They should be allowed to visit each other without wearing masks and to bypass testing and quarantine if those with vaccines show no symptoms after being exposed to COVID-19, the CDC says.
A person is considered by the CDC to be fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving a second Pfizer or Moderna dose.
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Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, said the province is not yet in a position to provide similar advice to its residents.
“They have a much higher percentage of the population vaccinated so that is an important consideration in making that recommendation,” Yaffe said. “We are obviously at this point working very hard to get people vaccinated.”
Outside of long-term care and retirement residences, Ontario does not have a significant percentage of citizens who are fully vaccinated, she said.
According to Our World in Data, Canada has administered 6.32 COVID-19 vaccine doses per 100 residents compared to 27.02 doses in the United States.
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