The Province of Ontario has announced that residents over the age of 18 will be able to book their COVID-19 vaccinations ahead of schedule.
As of 7:00 a.m. CST on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, individuals aged 18 and over in 2021 across Ontario will be eligible to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment through the provincial booking system and call centre, or directly through public health units that use their own booking system.
It was anticipated that those 18 and over were to become eligible the week of May 24 making this announcement a week ahead of schedule. Individuals who are 17 years old and are turning 18 in 2021 will also be eligible to book their COVID-19 vaccination appointment only for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
In addition, the province continues to work with public health units, First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and boards of education to ensure youth in Ontario between 12 and 17 years of age will be eligible to book an appointment through the provincial booking system beginning the week of May 31, 2021, to receive their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine
In May, Ontario expects to receive approximately 4.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Approximately 4.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are expected in June. Vaccine allocations for July have not been provided at this time.
As of May 16, 2021, at 8:00 p.m., over 7.2 million vaccine doses have been administered across the province, with over 93 per cent of Ontario residents aged 80 and over and more than 92 per cent of residents aged 75 to 79 having received at least one dose. More than 55 per cent of the population aged 18 and over have received at least one dose and more than 432,000 Ontarians are fully immunized, including 96 per cent of long-term care residents.
