34 LOCAL CASES FRIDAY, AS PEOPLE 75+ CAN NOW BOOK VACCINE ONLINE

SIMCOE MUSKOKA — The age has come down five years for those who can get COVID vaccines.

This as the province reported 34 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka Friday, the province 1,745 and Toronto 478, Peel 344 and York 174.

The health unit says today that adults 75 and older can pre-register now and throughout the weekend for their COVID-19 vaccine appointment through the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s website at www.smdhu.org.

And as of Monday they can directly book their appointment using the provincial booking system.

This age group includes people born in 1946 or earlier and joins high priority frontline health care workers in accordance with the Ministry of Health’s Guidance on Health Care Worker Prioritization;

  • Essential caregivers of residents in long-term care and retirement homes;
  • All Indigenous adults and their household members;
  • And adult recipients of chronic home care as those who are eligible to pre-register.

Once you have pre-registered on the health unit website, you will be placed in the queue to receive a vaccine appointment.

And you will be sent an email invitation from the province with a booking code to book the appointment on the provincial booking system.

Note that both first and second dose appointments will be generated at this time.

Anyone who received their first COVID-19 immunization prior to March 10 are reminded that their second dose appointment has been cancelled and will be rebooked later.

Second doses are now being given 16 weeks after the first dose as recommended by the National Advisory Committee for Immunization.

They say this allows Ontario to maximize the number of people who can benefit from the strong protection provided by the first dose.

More information about how to book the second dose appointment will be shared in early May.

More than 62,000 doses of vaccine have already been administered in Simcoe Muskoka, including to those most vulnerable in long-term care and retirement homes.

For more information about the COVID-19 immunization roll out, please see www.smdhu.org.