Ford to release additional information about Ontario's vaccination plan

The Ford government will unveil additional details on its COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan this afternoon, as cases continue to rise across the province and lockdowns loom for some regions, CP24 reports.

The announcement will be made at 3 pm by Premier Doug Ford, alongside Health Minister Christine Elliot, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones and Chair of the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force retired General Rick Hillier.

Ford confirmed Thursday that Ontario will begin administering Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to Ontarians next week. The vaccine was approved by Health Canada on Wednesday.

In an email statement, Ford said "Beginning Tuesday, December 15, these first doses will be administered at University Health Network and The Ottawa Hospital to health care workers who are providing care in long-term care homes and other high-risk settings," Ford said in an email statement on Thursday.

Toronto and Ottawa will each receive 3000 doses, Hillier said "The vaccinations are going to be rolled out in a coordinated fashion, so the teams now are working with the long-term care homes whose health care workers will be getting vaccinated first."

Due to the delicacy of the vaccine, Hillier says that people will get the vaccine by appointment. Ontario could receive up to 90,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of December. 13 hospitals across the province will become vaccination sites.