Vaccine Hunters has quickly become a valued resource centre, with its Twitter page -set up in March 2021- now with over 212k followers
Canadians scrambling to find the nearest available Vaccine appointment, now have a solid solution. The City of Toronto has just partnered with Vaccine Hunters Canada to help residents quickly find available vaccine appointments at City-run clinics.
At the end of each day, the City will provide Vaccine Hunters Canada with clinic appointment availability for the next day, so people can easily track them. This is also particularly helpful for new immigrants who sometimes find it more difficult to locate vaccine appointments availability.
Vaccine Hunters Canada is a community of volunteers dedicated to helping navigate the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, understand vaccine eligibility and connect anxious Canadians with appointment opportunities. The volunteer initiative has become a popular means for people to find out about available vaccine appointments. Toronto is the first municipality in Canada to officially partner with the volunteer organization.
Joshua Kalpin, Spokesperson, Vaccine Hunters Canada, explained that “our motto is neighbours helping neighbours, coast to coast and are grateful to the tens of thousands of Canadians who have contributed to this campaign. We feel an urgent sense of duty to work together so we can protect the most vulnerable and rebuild our communities.”
Currently, only Toronto Congress Centre and Cloverdale Mall Clinics have a few remaining appointments available. But as vaccine availability becomes more plentiful in the weeks ahead, new appointments will be added and available spots at all nine City clinics will be displayed.
Members of the public are reminded that they must book their appointments for City-run clinics through the provincial booking system, which is based on current Phase 2 eligibility criteria. There are no walk-in or standby appointments available at City-run clinics. Current eligibility at City-run clinics is as follows:
- All those who are 60 years of age or older (born in 1961 or earlier)
- Those who are 45 years of age or older (born in 1976 or earlier) and live in one of the 53 hot spot areas of Toronto based on postal code
- Pregnant women
- Teachers who work in hot spot areas
- Teachers who live in hot spot areas
- Childcare workers in licensed childcare settings
“Our Team Toronto vaccination efforts involve the City and Toronto Public Health, hospitals, community healthcare partners, community organizations, pharmacies, and doctors. This is a huge, all hands on deck effort,” said Mayor John Tory
Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, General Manager of the Office of Emergency Management, and Councillor Joe Cressy Chair of the Toronto Board of Health also applauded the new strategic partnership.
As of today, more than 11,283,434 Canadians have received at least one dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine. Over 10 percent of that total (1,104,855) has come from Toronto alone. In the race to get the vaccine shot into as many arms as possible, information on available locations could seem more valuable than gold. Now with the help of Vaccine Hunters Canada and the City of Toronto, that gold is being freely distributed.
