The Ontario government is adding high-risk health care workers to the list of those eligible to receive their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine earlier than the extended four-month interval.

Eligibility for booking will begin by the end of the week of May 10, 2021 and booking details will be provided in the coming days.

High-risk health care workers who will be eligible for the shortened second-dose interval are:

All hospital and acute care staff in frontline roles with COVID-19 patients and/or with a high-risk of exposure to COVID-19, including nurses and personal support workers and those performing aerosol-generating procedures:
Critical Care Units
Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Departments
COVID-19 Medical Units
Code Blue Teams, rapid response teams
General internal medicine and other specialists involved in the direct care of COVID-19 positive patients

All patient-facing health care workers involved in the COVID-19 response:
COVID-19 Specimen Collection Centers (e.g., Assessment centers, community COVID-19 testing locations)
Teams supporting outbreak response (e.g., IPAC teams supporting outbreak management, inspectors in the patient environment, redeployed health care workers supporting outbreaks or staffing crisis in congregate living settings)
COVID-19 vaccine clinics and mobile immunization teams
Mobile Testing Teams
COVID-19 Isolation Centers
COVID-19 Laboratory Services
Current members of Ontario’s Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT) who may be deployed at any time to support an emergency response

Medical First Responders
ORNGE
Paramedics
Firefighters providing medical first response as part of their regular duties
Police and special constables providing medical first response as part of their regular duties

Community health care workers serving specialized populations including:
Needle exchange/syringe programs and supervised consumption and treatment services

Indigenous health care service providers including but not limited to:
Aboriginal Health Access Centers, Indigenous Community Health Centers, Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Care Teams, and Indigenous Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics

Long-term care home and retirement-home health care workers, including nurses and personal support workers and Essential Caregivers

Individuals working in Community Health Centers serving disproportionally affected communities and/or communities experiencing highest burden of health, social and economic impacts from COVID-19

Critical health care workers in remote and hard to access communities, e.g., sole practitioner

Home and community care health care workers, including nurses and personal support workers caring for recipients of chronic homecare and seniors in congregate living facilities or providing hands-on care to COVID-19 patients in the community

source: media release, Province of Ontario