TORONTO -- All residents and staff at Toronto long-term care homes will receive their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Tuesday, city officials confirmed.
In a news release issued Monday, officials said that as of Feb. 16, the second dose of the vaccine will be administered to all consenting residents and staff at all 87 facilities, including the 10 city-run long-term care homes.
“This is a major milestone in our fight against COVID-19,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said in a statement.
“I want to thank all those involved in this immunization effort. This work is protecting our most vulnerable residents and we are continuing to get ready to support the provincial and federal governments in the larger vaccine rollout across Toronto.”
According to city officials, more than 10,065 residents and 3,151 essential caregivers and staff had been completely vaccinated as of 11 a.m. on Sunday.
The news comes after the Ontario government released an updated priority list of who should get the COVID-19 vaccine next. On Sunday, the government confirmed that all long-term care residents across the province have now received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The deadline to reach this milestone was Feb. 15.
In a memo, provincial officials said that Indigenous adults in northern remote and higher risk communities and health-care workers with the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19 will be next in line to get the vaccine.
Other workers identified in the highest priority group include "all patient-facing health-care workers involved in the COVID-19 response," medical first-responders, including paramedics and firefighters, and community health-care workers serving specialized populations, including those who work at needle exchange or supervised consumption sites.
Both the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Moderna vaccine require two shots in order to be considered fully immunized.
In Ontario, an estimated 467,626 doses have been administered and 174,643 people are now fully vaccinated.
