The first Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario is administered to personal support worker Anita Quidangen, at a hospital in Toronto, on Dec. 14, 2020.Ontario has administered the provinces’ first COVID-19 vaccination to a health-care worker from a Toronto nursing home.
Quidangen has been employed at the Rekai Centre since 1988, the government said, and worked throughout a COVID-19 outbreak at the nursing home. Half the shots will be administered this week and the other half will be intentionally held back to give the same workers a required second dose 21 days later.
The province said it will also be prioritizing the distribution of the vaccine in regions with the highest rates of COVID-19.The government has said, however, that the vaccine isn’t expected to be more broadly available to the general public until April. The province expects to receive 2.4 million doses – allowing it to vaccinate 1.2 million people – during the first three months of 2021.
The government said on Friday that the hospitals receiving the first shots have made security arrangements to ensure the vaccine is safe from theft.In total, 857 people are hospitalized in Ontario due to COVID-19, including 244 in intensive care.