Ontario shortens COVID-19 vaccine dose interval for healthcare workers

May 10 2021, 8:56 pm

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.

Megan DevlinMegan Devlin

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