Expect 'no or very few' new COVID-19 booster shot appointments on Monday in Ottawa

Health-care worker Thi Nguyen administers Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine to a patient at a COVID-19 clinic in Ottawa on Tuesday, March 30, 2021. (Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Ottawa's medical officer of health warns there will be "no or very few" appointments available on Monday when 634,000 Ottawa residents become eligible for a booster shot.

Starting Monday, Ottawa residents aged 18 and older will be eligible to book an appointment to receive the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, Dr. Vera Etches warns there are not enough appointments available due to a shortage of health professionals to administer the vaccine at community clinics in Ottawa.

"We're asking residents of Ottawa for their patience and their understanding as we work through this weekend and the following days to meet this demand," Etches said during a media conference on Friday.

"The reality is on Monday, we may not have a lot of new appointments for the newly eligible 18 plus population. There may be no or very few appointments available."

As of Friday, more than 121,000 third doses have been administered to Ottawa residents over the age of 50, health care workers and other select groups.

Etches says while there's enough COVID-19 vaccines available, the issue is a lack of people to administer the shots.

"We understand from the province that there is a lot of supply of the mRNA vaccines in Ontario. We probably have a lot more Moderna than Pfizer supply, but that's good," she said.

"No one needs to worry about supply. What we're limited by at the moment is that giving the vaccine is an act that's regulated, so it has to be done by a regulated health professional. So we only have so many regulated health professionals that are able to immunize and we're calling on them."

Ottawa-area hospitals are partnering with Ottawa Public Health to lead a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Nepean Sportsplex on Saturday. Family physicians and paramedics will be working at vaccination clinics this weekend, including a new clinic at the EY Centre.

"We are in conversations with the province to really take some novel approaches about finding immunizers; it is really the people who can immunize is limited at this point," Etches said

With the Omicron variant of concern spreading across Ottawa, Etches acknowledges there is a rush for people to get the vaccine.

"We will be working to make sure that everybody gets one who wants one," she said.

"We think that working through access for the 600,000 plus will take a number of weeks. We are going to try to shrink that as much as we can."