TORONTO -- Another two COVID-19 vaccination clinics in Toronto have been shuttered amid supply issues.
A clinic at Thorncliffe Park Community Hub that was being operated by Michael Garron Hospital did not schedule any appointments for this week and has now formally announced that it will not be taking appointments until the supply issues are resolved.
North York General Hospital has also announced that its community clinic at Seneca College will close as of April 17 and won’t reopen until April 26 due to the “temporary slow down.”
The latest clinic closures come one day after the Scarborough Health Network confirmed that it would have to cancel 10,000 appointments booked for community clinics at Centennial College and Centenary hospital between Wednesday and Monday.
It is believed that the widespread cancellations are the result of a slowdown in vaccine deliveries from Moderna.
Ontario was supposed to receive a shipment of 303,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine last week but is still waiting on them,
The province has also said that another shipment of approximately 448,000 vaccine doses of the Moderna vaccine that was supposed to arrive between April 19 and 25 will not be in its hands until the end of the month.
“We have worked hard at Toronto Public Health with all our vaccination partners across the city to do whatever we can to support them. Unfortunately the vaccine supply issue isn’t about us; it is actually a much larger issue and we have seen other communities in the province also having challenges,” Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa said during an unrelated press conference on Wednesday morning. “These things I guess happen. We know the vaccine is in great demand globally and everyone around the world is trying to get more and more supply and it sort of puts demands that are oftentimes difficult for vaccine suppliers to meet.”
Ontario has administered more than 3.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to date, including 112,817 on Tuesday.
It has 1.2 million doses still in storage throughout the province as of Wednesday.