These groups are now eligible for COVID vaccine in London, Middlesex
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UPDATE: Friday, Ontario officials announced pregnant women are now being prioritized to get the COVID-19 vaccine, due to new information showing they are at high risk of severe illness from the virus. They can book by calling 1-888-999-6488 or through local public health units.
The Middlesex-London Health Unit has added new groups to its COVID-19 vaccine eligibility list and it hopes to extend bookings to more people within the next week.
Obese people, adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities and patients undergoing treatment that compromises their immune system, such as chemotherapy, are now eligible to book appointments at vaccination clinics, the health unit said.
“The new eligibility opens bookings to a fairly large group, when you look at the people who have the health conditions and their caregivers. Each person with one of the high-risk health conditions is allowed to have one caregiver vaccinated,” medical officer of health Dr. Chris Mackie said Thursday.
Obese people seeking a COVID-19 shot must have a body mass index of 40 or more, but proof of conditions is not required, the health unit said.
People with high-risk conditions who require regular care or help with daily tasks can have an essential caregiver vaccinated as well.
COVID-19 shots at vaccination centres are currently available to people in the 60-plus age group, people with chronic health conditions and select adults who cannot work from home.
The province’s Phase 2 plan divides health conditions into three groups: highest risk, high risk and at risk.
In the London area, the at-risk group, which includes pregnancy, asthma, diabetes and heart disease, will be the next to become eligible.
The health unit is assessing how it will manage the at-risk group, Mackie said.
“It’s not clear whether we will be able to move to all at-risk conditions as of sometime next week or whether we’ll have to do a subset,” he said. “What we don’t want is people all becoming eligible at once and then the majority of them being frustrated that they can’t find an appointment.
“We need to have our ducks in a row to be able to open to such a large group.”
The three London and Middlesex County vaccination clinics gave 18,370 shots in the last seven days, Mackie said Thursday.
The health unit will grapple with a 25 per cent reduction in Pfizer-BioNTech doses starting next week as the province diverts shots to hard-hit zones, but Mackie is hopeful the decrease will be short-lived.
“We have also been told there will be increasing shipments of Pfizer vaccine available across the province. How that gets allocated out is still being assessed and I know that the province is working on a data-driven, evidence based way for allocating additional vaccines,” he said.
“We hope that by the first week of May we’ll start to see those shipments really start to increase again.”
The health unit reported 100 new COVID-19 cases and no deaths Thursday.
Book an appointment
Online: covidvaccinelm.ca
By phone: 226-289-3560 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., seven days a week
Eligibility: People 60 and older (born in 1961 or earlier), Indigenous people 16 and older, select targeted populations, people with specific chronic health conditions and health-care workers.
London-area clinics:
- Western Fair District Agriplex, 845 Florence St., London
- North London Optimist community centre, 1345 Cheapside St.
- Caradoc community centre, 565 Lions Park Dr., Mt. Brydges
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