These are the 17 new hospital sites that will be delivering the COVID-19 vaccine

Francesca Paceri, a registered pharmacist technician carefully fills the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at a vaccine clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Tuesday, December 15, 2020. Toronto and Peel region continue to be in lockdown. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO — The Ontario government has released a list of 17 additional hospital sites that will receive doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine over the next two weeks.

The first 6,000 doses of the vaccine received by the province were sent to Toronto’s University Health Network and The Ottawa Hospital earlier this week.

So far more than 2,300 health-care workers have received their first dose of the vaccine at those two sites with more expected to be vaccinated in the coming weeks.

The province, however, has planned a wider rollout for when it receives its next shipment of the vaccine.

It says that a total of 17 additional hospital sites have been chosen to “to continue vaccinating health care workers and essential caregivers who work in hospitals, long-term care homes, retirement homes and other congregate settings caring for seniors.”

The full list is as follows:

The Ford government says that the hospital sites that have been chosen are all equipped with the equipment needed to store the vaccines at – 70 C, as required by Pfizer.

They say that since the vaccine ”cannot be transferred beyond the initial delivery location at this time” health care workers will continue to be prioritized and the mass vaccination of residents in long-term care facilities will have to wait for the time being.

"Following a successful pilot, we are excited to continue onto the next stage of our rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines to Ontarians," Health Minister Christine Elliott said in the release. "While we are planning to ensure that everyone who wants a vaccine will receive one, we need to first protect our frontline workers and those providing essential care to our most vulnerable."

The Ford government has said that it expects to receive 90,000 additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine within the next two weeks.