Today, Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, and Solicitor General Sylvia Jones announced additional vaccine clinics in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) that will provide accelerated access to COVID-19 booster shots for education and child care staff. These new locations are designed as a response to the Omicron variant.
The 10 additional clinics, located across southern Ontario will serve education and child care staff in the GTHA during dedicated time slots. The clinics will administer booster doses.
Halton's new clinic will be located at 125 Lakeshore Road East in Oakville. It will operate seven days a week, offering dedicated time slots for education and child care staff between 4 to 10 p.m., Monday to Friday, and on weekends throughout the day.
Staff eligible to book an appointment at one of these ten locations can do so starting January 8, 2022. Follow the link to find additional information concerning eligibility and required documents.
“Our government has enhanced ventilation in every school, deployed high-quality PPE, and are accelerating access to the COVID-19 vaccine booster for all education and child care staff,” said Minister Lecce.
“The province continues to deliver booster doses as quickly and conveniently as possible, and we are expanding our efforts to additional vaccine clinics in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area” said Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. “A third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine offers additional protection against the Omicron variant, and we continue to urge everyone to get their booster dose as soon as possible.”
Oakville Mayor Rob Burton welcomed the news of an Oakville clinic.
"These appointment windows are held exclusively for Ontario Education and Child Care Staff which includes educators, custodial staff, administrative staff, and school bus drivers, and child care staff," he reminded Oakvillians in a statement.
Local pharmacies will also begin offering targeted appointments for education and childcare staff.
The Ontario government says they will continue to work with all public health units (PHUs) to explore additional opportunities to provide access to booster doses for education and child care staff across all regions of the province. Local PHUs will continue to provide information on how vaccines can be accessed in their communities.
There are other ongoing government efforts aimed to improve safety in schools and child care settings during the pandemic. Measures currently in place include:
- Providing optional non-fit-tested N95 masks to all education and child care staff
- Updated and stricter screening requirements to help limit the spread of COVID-19
- Ventilation improvements measures at every school across Ontario, including more than 70,000 HEPA filter units and other ventilation devices already deployed to schools
- Access for school boards to $1.6 billion in resources to protect against COVID-19, with 2000 projected additional staff hired, including for example educators, custodians and mental health workers
- New time-limited cohorting protocols.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health are also working together to make more rapid-antigen tests available to support the ongoing operations of child-care centres and schools when they return to in-person learning.