NewsCoronavirus

Ontario shortens COVID-19 vaccine dose interval for healthcare workers

Megan Devlin
Megan Devlin
|
May 10 2021, 8:56 pm
Ontario shortens COVID-19 vaccine dose interval for healthcare workers

Certain high-risk healthcare workers in Ontario will be eligible for a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine sooner than expected.

Most Ontarians have to wait four months between their first and second shot in order for the province to give more people a first dose sooner to bring high case counts under control.

In a news release Monday, the province said certain healthcare workers wouldn’t have to wait that long.

Workers eligible for an earlier second shot include:

  • Hospital and acute care staff in frontline roles with COVID-19 patients or who are at a high risk of exposure to COVID-19
    • This includes nurses, personal support workers, and people who perform aerosol-generating procedures
    • Critical care units
    • Emergency departments and urgent care departments
    • COVID-19 units
    • Code Blue teams (and rapid response teams)
    • General medicine and other specialists involved in the care of COVID-19 patients
  • Certain workers who deal with patients and are involved in COVID-19 response
    • Staff who collect swabs or other samples for COVID-19 tests
    • workers who support outbreak response
    • staff at vaccine clinics
    • COVID-19 lab workers
    • COVID-19 isolation centre workers
  • First responders
    • ORNGE
    • Paramedics
    • Some firefighters
    • Some police
  • Long-term care and retirement home workers
  • People who work in Community Health Centers
  • Healthcare workers in remote communities
  • Home care workers

The advanced second dose eligibility for these workers begins this week. The province will release more information in the coming days on how to book.

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