Toronto to receive Ontario's 1st doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine today
Ontario/IBNS: Toronto will receive the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, said retired general Rick Hillier, the head of the province's vaccine distribution task force.
Meanwhile, Ontario's public health officials reported 1940 more cases of the COVID-19 infection in Ontario, as against the 1,677 new cases on Dec. 13.
The new cases include 544 in Toronto, 390 in Peel Region, 191 in York Region, 134 in Hamilton, and 114 in Windsor-Essex.
The arrival of several thousand doses Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario late Sunday night marked a major milestone in the massive immunization campaign.
"This is 'V-Day'," retired general Rick Hillier said in an interview with CBC News Network this morning, CBC News reported.
"The number of vaccinations that take place today will probably be pretty small but I think there's a little trickle down the spine of every single person in the province and in the public service and in the health sector who have been working for months, who have been fighting COVID-19," he continued.
The initial shots will be administered at a hospital site in Toronto's University Health Network (UHN).
Ontario Premier Doug Ford was at the Hamilton International Airport to greet the plane after it landed.
Health-care workers, long-term care residents, and their caregivers will be among the first to receive the vaccine, said Ford, and added adults in Indigenous communities, residents of retirement homes, and recipients of chronic home health-care will also be priority groups.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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