Following the direction of the Provincial Government, the Middlesex-London Health Unit will expand COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all individuals with at-risk health conditions such as dementia, diabetes and sickle cell disease, as well as essential workers who cannot work from home on Tuesday, May 11th at 8:00 a.m. The Health Unit will then expand eligibility to all those 40 years of age and older on Thursday, May 13th at 8:00 a.m.

Essential workers who cannot work from home (Group two from Phase two of Ontario’s vaccine rollout plan), includes:

• Essential and critical retail workers (including grocery, foodbank, pharmacy, ServiceOntario, ServiceCanada, Passport Canada, wholesalers and general goods, restaurant, LCBO workers)
• Workers in manufacturing industries directly involved in supporting the COVID-19 response, construction and other essential businesses and services where facilities are at heightened risk for COVID-19 outbreaks and spread
• Social workers and social services staff who provide in-person client services (including youth justice workers, Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program case workers)
• Courts and justice system workers (including probation and parole workers)
• Transportation, warehousing and distribution workers (including public transit workers, truck drivers supporting essential services, marine and rail cargo and maintenance, highway maintenance)
• Electricity (including system operations, generation, transmission, distribution and storage workers)
• Communications infrastructure workers (including cellular, satellite, landline, internet)
• Water and wastewater management workers
• Financial services workers (bank branch staff)
• Veterinarians and veterinary teams
• Waste management workers, oil and petroleum workers, natural gas and propane gas workers, mine workers and uranium processing workers
• Individuals working in unlicensed childcare centres

Please note that, pending provincial notification, vaccine eligibility will be expanded to include individuals over the age of 30 on Thursday, May 20th and to those over the age of 18 on Thursday, May 27th.

In addition to expanded eligibility, the Province has added high-risk healthcare workers to the list of those eligible to book a second dose appointment with a shortened interval between doses. Starting Friday, May 14th, individuals in this group will need to call the COVID-19 Vaccine Booking line and attest that they are eligible to book a shortened-interval appointment. The online booking system cannot be used to re-schedule or book a second-dose appointment.

High risk healthcare workers who are eligible include:

• All hospital and acute care staff in frontline roles with COVID-19 patients and/or with a high-risk of exposure to COVID-19, including nurses and personal support workers and those performing aerosol-generating procedures:
  - Critical Care Units
  - Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Departments
  - COVID-19 Medical Units
  - Code Blue Teams, rapid response teams
  - General internal medicine and other specialists involved in the direct care of COVID-19 positive patients
• All patient-facing healthcare workers involved in the COVID-19 response:
  - COVID-19 Specimen Collection Centers (e.g., Assessment centers, community COVID-19 testing locations)
  - Teams supporting outbreak response (e.g., Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) teams supporting outbreak management, inspectors in the patient environment, redeployed healthcare workers supporting outbreaks or staffing crisis in congregate living settings)
  - COVID-19 vaccine clinics and mobile immunization teams
  - Mobile Testing Teams
  - COVID-19 Isolation Centers
  - COVID-19 Laboratory Services
  - Current members of Ontario’s Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT) who may be deployed at any time to support an emergency response
• Medical First Responders
  - ORNGE
  - Paramedics
  - Firefighters providing medical first response as part of their regular duties
  - Police and special constables providing medical first response as part of their regular duties
• Community healthcare workers serving specialized populations including:
  - Needle exchange/syringe programs and supervised consumption and treatment services
  - Indigenous health care service providers including but not limited to: Aboriginal Health Access Centers, Indigenous Community Health Centers, Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Care Teams, and Indigenous Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics
• Long-term care home and retirement home healthcare workers, including nurses, personal support workers, and essential caregivers
• Individuals working in Community Health Centers serving disproportionally affected communities and/or communities experiencing the highest burden of health, social and economic impacts from COVID-19
• Critical healthcare workers in remote and hard to access communities, e.g., sole practitioner
• Home and community care healthcare workers, including nurses and personal support workers caring for recipients of chronic homecare and seniors in congregate living facilities or providing hands-on care to COVID-19 patients in the community

How to book an appointment:

• Book online at www.covidvaccinelm.ca (new appointments open daily at 8:00 a.m.)
• Call 226-289-3560 (8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday to Sunday)

How to re-schedule a second-dose appointment:

• Call 226-289-3560 (8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday to Sunday)

To review the complete list of Group Two essential workers who cannot work from home, click here (Ontario’s COVID-19 Vaccination Plan – Phase Two).

For more information about COVID-19 vaccine eligibility and those who are eligible to book a shortened second-dose appointment visit: www.healthunit.com/covid-19-vaccine-eligibility

Media Contact:
Dan Flaherty, Communications Manager, Middlesex-London Health Unit, 519-617-0570 (cell.)