As the province continues to urgently scale up its capacity to administer vaccines, the Ontario government is extending its call to arms to businesses, volunteers and retired health professionals to help further boost capacity and get more boosters into arms sooner.
“Our best defence against the highly transmissible Omicron variant is a lightning-fast offence,” said Premier Doug Ford.
As more mass-vax sites, hospital clinics, pharmacies and primary care clinics come online, Ontario is asking the province’s businesses, workers and union leaders to support the vaccine rollout by hosting employer-led clinics. Employer-led clinics must be set up, operated and funded by employers and meet established criteria to vaccinate employees aged 18 and over, their families and retirees, as well as members of the local and neighbouring communities as capacity allows.
Businesses can call the Ontario Together Contact Centre at 1-888-777-0554 to learn more about hosting a vaccination clinic. Community groups and places of worship interested in arranging a GO-VAXX mobile bus clinic visit, can contact [email protected].
The province is also launching the Ontario COVID-19 Volunteer Portal and permitting retired health professionals to support the vaccine rollout.
The Ontario COVID-19 Volunteer Portal recruits everyday Ontarians as volunteers to support health care providers and others at vaccination clinics across the province. The portal is open to Ontarians 16 years and older who can register to volunteer in a variety of roles based on their abilities, knowledge and experience and the needs of their local public health units.
To further ramp up capacity to support Ontario’s booster dose rollout, the Ontario government is making regulatory amendments to allow more individuals to safely administer the COVID-19 vaccine, such as retired nurses and physicians, dentists, and firefighters. These individuals are encouraged to register through the Health Workforce Matching Portal. Supervision will be required by a physician, registered nurse or nurse practitioner, or pharmacist who is present at the premises where the vaccine is administered. Individuals who registered with the portal to help with vaccine administration earlier this year are also encouraged to log in to their account, update their profile and renewing their availability to help get boosters into the arms of Ontarians.
Once identified, Ontario will work to match individuals who signed up through both the Ontario COVID-19 Volunteer Portal and the Health Workforce Matching Portal with public health units according to local vaccination needs. To ensure safety requirements are met, education and training courses will be available to the additional vaccinators who need to build their competency to administer injections.
source: media release, Government of Ontario
