THUNDER BAY -- Starting on Monday, residents of the District of Thunder Bay will be able to start booking COVID-19 appointments online via the provincial booking portal.
The site, which can be found at www.ontario.ca/bookvaccine, is expected to be online at 8 a.m.
Anyone born in 1941 or earlier, regardless if they've turned 80 yet or not, is eligible to book an appointment.
The province has 800,000 appointments available across Ontario. Once those are booked up and begun to be processed, Ontarians 75 and older are expected to be invited to book appointments, which Gen. Rick Hillier, who is overseeing vaccine roll-out in Ontario, said he expects will be in early April. The number of appointments per public health unit was not broken down, so it's unclear how many appointments will be available in the Thunder Bay District.
Premier Doug Ford on Sunday said Ontario delivered 50,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday, adding the province has the capacity to vaccinate three times that amount.
"We need more vaccines," Ford said at a Queen's Park news conference.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit has already started booking appointments for those 80 and older, though their available first-wave of appointments filled up quickly when their portal was opened this past week.
"We are making steady progress in the execution of our vaccine distribution plan, and the launching of the online booking system is another major milestone," Ford said in an accompanying news release.
"In this phase of our plan we are still offering vaccines to our most vulnerable, so I encourage everyone aged 80 and older to use the portal to book an appointment. For everyone else, please be patient, as we get more supply, the vaccine will be offered to more people."
Individuals who still have a red and white health card, or who require assistance with booking, can call the Provincial Vaccine Information Line number at 1-888-999-6488 beginning on Monday.
Ontario has delivered 1.15 million vaccine doses as of Sunday morning.
