TORONTO – Booking the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine has become a titanic undertaking. At least in Ontario. Since yesterday all the adults in the province who received the second dose at least three months ago can do the third dose but most of those who have tried to book online on the government portal, have been speechless: there are no places in January, the recall will be possible to do it starting from February. 

After waiting an hour or even two on the booking portal, most of the inhabitants in the province have found that there are no more appointments available for the next few days and for the whole month of January. In Toronto, in just 15 minutes after the opening of the portal, appointments were scheduled until January 20 while in Ottawa all appointments for booster doses were completed within 14 minutes of the official opening of the portal. This was also confirmed by a reader of the Corriere who did not hide his frustration and disappointment for having remained online for over two hours before getting an appointment for February 8th.

In Simcoe-Muskoka, the local public health unit said it will limit all of its walk-in clinics to administer the first, second or third dose of vaccine to those over 50 or part of a priority group. In essence, a fast track has been put in place. “We realize that everyone is frustrated but because of the overwhelming demand for booster doses, right now taking into account the capacity of our clinic we must prioritize them,” the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit wrote on Twitter.

In the first two hours of opening about 125,000 people booked appointments to receive the booster dose on the province’s website.
Dr Andrew Boozary, director of social medicine for the University Health Network, said the broadening eligibility favoured people who could stay connected to the portal longer than anyone else. “There are only a few people who can afford to be online as long as necessary,” he said.
Boozary added that the lack of access to timely third doses or even diagnostic tests highlights that since the beginning of the pandemic the province has not changed its approach to public health at all. “For those unable to book the booster dose or a rapid antigen test, this holiday period will be very different and these disparities, it should be noted, have been the main story of two pandemics.”

Ontario Health Minister spokeswoman Christine Elliott said Ontario residents should check the portal frequently in the coming days and weeks to see what new appointments are available. “As we continue to increase our daily capacity, individual public health units are actively working to continuously add appointments to the booking system,” Hilkene said. We also encourage Ontarians to regularly check availability through other channels such as pharmacies, primary care facilities and walk-in clinics.”

Meanwhile, it also appears that there is a shortage of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In some clinics this would have been reserved for men under the age of 30, while all others were given Moderna. “Given the historical spread of the Pfizer vaccine, we have requested an additional four million Pfizer doses from the federal government by January, which have yet to be confirmed,” Hilkene told CTV News Toronto, “if Pfizer’s stocks run out, we will rely on Moderna until we receive additional supplies of Pfizer from the federal government.”