Statement from Dr. Ian Fraser on MGH’s COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts in East Toronto

Last updated on January 13, 2021

Statement from Dr. Ian Fraser, Chief of Staff, Michael Garron Hospital:

"Since the beginning of this pandemic, our best defense against this deadly virus has been to operate with speed not perfection. We were one of the first hospitals in Canada to open a COVID-19 assessment centre and we are operating nine temporary pop-up testing sites to offer low-barrier testing to priority neighbourhoods in East Toronto. As we face our next challenge of administering COVID-19 vaccines on a large scale, we are following the strong advice of General Rick Hillier to vaccinate as many eligible people as possible, as quickly as possible within the guidance and prioritization set out by the Ontario Government.

When we opened our MGH COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic on Dec. 22, we prioritized health care workers and essential caregivers in long-term care (LTC) and retirement homes. On Jan. 6, 2021, we marked a major milestone by vaccinating all eligible residents of the 22 LTC and priority retirement homes we support in just four days, which was over 2,500 COVID-19 vaccines. This is more than two weeks in advance of the Ontario Government’s deadline to vaccinate all residents, health care workers and essential caregivers at LTC homes in priority regions by January 21, 2021. In addition to the 2,500+ vaccines administered by our MGH teams off-site with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, we have also vaccinated 1,993 staff and essential caregivers of LTC and priority retirement homes at our on-site clinic at MGH.

Most importantly, MGH is administering COVID-19 vaccines in accordance with the identified priority populations identified in Phase 1 of the provincial government plan. According to the Ministry of Health Guidance for Prioritizing Healthcare Workers for COVID-19 Vaccination, the definition of healthcare workers is “any regulated health professionals and any staff member, contract workers, student/trainee, registered volunteer, or other essential caregiver currently working in a health care organization, including workers in non-direct patient care roles such as cleaning staff, food services staff, information technology staff, security, research staff, and other administrative staff.”  Hospital workers are essential workers who qualify for vaccines according to this guidance. As we look to redeploy staff into different roles to support our COVID-19 response, many staff who do not regularly interact with the public may be asked to do so. 

When we first opened up our COVID-19 vaccination clinic internally at MGH, appointments were only available to patient-facing staff. We set aggressive targets to rapidly scale up our clinic in an effort to vaccinate as many healthcare workers as possible. We can now vaccinate over 500 people a day at our clinic on-site.  In order to make sure we have the maximum amount of eligible healthcare workers vaccinated every day, we opened up our vaccines appointments to staff and physicians at eight other hospitals, in addition to all staff at MGH. We continue to vaccinate health care workers and essential caregivers at LTC and retirement homes.

 In total, we have administered COVID-19 vaccines to:

• Over 2,500 LTC and priority retirement home residents in East Toronto
• 1,993 staff and essential caregivers of LTC and priority retirement homes
• 1,810 to MGH staff
• 2,937 to staff at 8 other GTA hospitals

We look forward to the day when we are able to vaccinate every health care provider and physician in our community."