'No option is off the table': Toronto moves to boost vaccination capacity to deal with Omicron

Toronto will nearly double capacity at the city’s five mass immunization sites and work on other ways to increase local vaccination capacity amid a call to ramp up booster shots in the face of the Omicron variant, city officials said Wednesday.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday evening, Mayor John Tory said the city “will explore every possible opportunity to ramp up capacity.”

“No option is off the table in terms of meeting that increased need and expanding that capacity,” Tory said.

His comments came just an hour after Premier Doug Ford announced an accelerated booster strategy for the province to try and reduce spread of the more contagious COVID-19 variant. That strategy will see everyone 18 and up become eligible to book a third dose on Dec. 20, as long as the appointment is at least three months after their second shot.

“What we know about Omicron from public health officials so far is that this variant moves fast. That speed is what likely represents the real problem. And that is why we are rolling out and moving with as much speed as possible to roll out vaccinations,” Tory said.

To meet the renewed demand for shots, the five city-run clinics will once again operate seven days per week with the ability to hand out some 41,000 doses per week.

The city added 100,000 appointments at its clinics through January 19 on Monday and several thousand are still available. Another 8,800 appointments are being added to the Woodbine Mall clinic tomorrow.

The city is also looking to add more pharmacies to the list of locations handing out shots, along with clinics and doctors’ offices.

Hospitals across the province, including in the GTA, are already moving to implement provincial orders to expand their vaccination clinics.

OMICRON ‘INDEED CIRCULATING’ IN TORONTO

Speaking alongside Tory, Toronto's Acting Medical Officer Of Health Dr. Na-Koshie Lamptey said that while healthcare workers and the general population are "exhausted" from dealing with the virus, it is “not done with us” yet.

“In just a few short weeks, we have discovered a new variant that brings new challenges and while we might rightly feel as though we are done with the virus, the virus is not done with us,” Lamptey said.

Toronto confirmed its first case of Omicron on Dec. 3.

Lamptey said Omicron ”is indeed circulating in the Toronto population” and that there have been 39 confirmed cases in the city as of this morning, not all of them linked to travel.

She said that there are many more samples currently undergoing testing and the number of confirmed cases is expected to rise quickly.

“It is clear that the Omicron variant is highly transmissible,” Lamptey said. “When we have suspected outbreaks with this variant, we see that the virus spreads quickly when individuals are indoors and not maintaining masking and distancing.”

She urged anyone who is not yet vaccinated to do so quickly and also urged everyone to get a third dose as soon as they become eligible.

Most Toronto residents in long-term care homes have already received third doses as part of a coordinated flu shot campaign, the city said.

Lamptey also urged people to reduce their in person contact with other people as much as possible for the time being and to limit the number and size of gatherings over the holidays.

“What we do now will affect all of us in the weeks to come. Continue to remain home when you are ill. Continue to wear a well-fitting, multilayer, breathable mask when you are indoors or cannot maintain a safe physical distance,” she said.

Earlier Wednesday, Toronto City Council voted to extend all COVID-19 bylaws, including mandatory masking inside businesses and in common areas of apartments and condos, until at least April 2022.