First dose vaccine appointments for ages 75 years and up

Last week the province announced that as of today, Mar.22, residents aged 75 or more during 2021 may register for the first dose of COVID-19 vaccinations. Other eligible populations at this time are Retirement Home residents (who will be vaccinated in-home by mobile vaccination teams), Retirement Home essential caregivers, residents in the general population who are 80 years of age and older, and Indigenous residents (on or off reserve) who are 55 years of age and older.

You can book your appointment online (family/friends strongly encouraged to assist) OR by calling RCDHU at 613-735-9724 or 1-800-267-1097 extension 200. There are two ways to do it online:

1. Register online with Renfrew County and District Health Unit (RCDHU)

Visit rcdhu.com and select the Registration link, or Click HERE to go directly to the link. 

OR

2. Register online via the Ontario Public Health vaccination portal at: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/covid-19-vaccines-ontario

Select your eligibility group, input your post code and select Renfrew County and District Health Unit. This will take you to the same RCDHU registration link shown in Option 1 above.

You will receive a confirmation email when you have registered.

PLEASE REGISTER ONLY ONCE.

If you use the Ontario registration portal, you may be confused by messages on the front page which say that if you’re 75 or older in 2021, you can book your vaccine appointment at either a mass vaccination clinic or pharmacy. It also says if you’re 60 or older in 2021, you can book your vaccine appointment at a pharmacy.

These options are NOT available to residents of RCDHU as only certain public health units are involved in the pharmacy pilot. Valley residents aged 60 to 75 are NOT eligible for vaccine appointments at this time.

Further, Lorraine’s Pharmasave in Barry’s Bay is not in the list of the next 700 pharmacies that will be administering Covid-19 vaccines.  Pharmasave owner Chris Briggs told The Current, “We will not be having Covid vaccine clinics at the pharmacy. Our three injection certified staff members will be assisting at our community-based clinics…. The Ministry is proceeding with an age-based rollout of the vaccines … dependent on vaccine availability in our county. Unfortunately, the Ontario Ministry of Health and our local Health Unit is dependent on supply from Ottawa.  The supply directly affects who gets vaccinated.”

A media release from RCDHU received Mar.22 provides additional clarification:

In order to ensure those most vulnerable are prioritized, RCD residents 75 to 79 years of age (born in the years 1942 to 1946) will be able to register but will be unable to book an appointment until the previous priority groups are close to completion. Public messaging regarding booking appointments for this group will follow when appropriate and will begin soon. However, residents on the 75 to 79 years of age registration list may receive calls offering vaccination if extra doses are available at clinics.

Please note that the availability of vaccination appointments will be based on the number of vaccine doses that RCD receives each week. Because of this, people should anticipate that it will take a number of weeks for everyone in the new groupings to be able to book and receive their vaccinations. 

Once you have an appointment, be sure you remember to bring proof of eligibility (drivers’ licence, etc.) to the vaccine clinic.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 12:46 p.m. with the clarification from RCDHU that additional priority groups may register online but registration may not immediately trigger an appointment booking. Vaccine administration is dependent on supply.

Renfrew County & District Health Unit(2021,Mar.22) Renfrew County and District COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout Expands To Next Priority Groups [media release]

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