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The newly approved AstraZeneca vaccine will go only to adults aged 18 to 64 years old in Ontario, Health Minister Christine Elliott says.
People aged 65 and older will be given the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, she said.
Ontario is also awaiting the advice of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) regarding extending the wait between two doses of a vaccine to four months.
“You can have more people be vaccinated at least with the first dose,” Elliott said Tuesday. “And with the variants of concern (VOC) out there this could make a significant difference for Ontario in reducing hospitalizations and deaths.”
AstraZeneca, which requires only regular refrigeration and not the deep freeze storage needed for Pfizer or Moderna, could be used in mass vaccinations and in correctional facilities, she said.
It remains unclear when to expect full inoculation of all residents aged 80 years and older, a group particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infection.
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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the province’s “nebulous” vaccine plan is proof that the government has not prepared adequately for the full rollout.
“Here we are with all these questions as literally vaccines are being shipped to Ontario,” Horwath said.
Ontario reported 979 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, none in residents of long-term care (LTC) who have been the initial focus of the province’s vaccination efforts.
There were 11 new deaths linked to COVID-19, including two LTC residents, and the pandemic has been blamed so far for 6,997 deaths.
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Hospitalizations remained roughly stable with 677 patients — 284 in intensive care and 189 on ventilators.
There were 253 new COVID-19 cases in Toronto, 223 in Peel, 99 in York, 64 in Ottawa, 34 in Durham and 32 in Halton.
An additional seven cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, the United Kingdom-identified mutation, brought the total number of VOC cases to 572.
In the previous 24 hours, Ontario administered 30,767 COVID-19 tests with a positivity rate of 2.9%.
Another 979 people with COVID-19 either recovered or did not require hospitalization two weeks after the onset of symptoms.
aartuso@postmedia.com
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