Good afternoon Kanata North,
Great news! Starting today, all Ottawa residents age 75 and over (born in or before 1946) can begin booking appointments to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Visit Ontario.ca/bookvaccine to access the provincial booking system or call the provincial vaccine booking line at 1-833-943-3900 between 8 am and 8 pm, seven days a week. Only book or call if you are eligible.
Appointments will be available at four community vaccination clinics:
- Nepean Sportsplex (now open)
- Ruddy Family YMCA-YWCA (now open)
- Eva James Memorial Community Centre in Kanata (see below map), which opens tomorrow, Tuesday, March 23
- City Hall (opens Tuesday, March 23)
To enable physical distancing and to reduce the number of people in the clinic, please arrive for your vaccine no more than 10 minutes before your appointment time.
Confirm your eligibility
Please visit Ottawa Public Health’s COVID-19 vaccine eligibility screening tool. If you are unable to book an appointment when your eligibility is first announced, you can still receive the vaccine at a later date.
Transportation
Accommodations will be made for residents who need help with accessibility and all clinic locations are accessible. Para Transpo users can book a ride to the clinic through the COVID-19 Vaccination Trip Reservation line at 613-842-3600. If Para Transpo is not available to you, you can request a ride to and from the clinic through Ottawa Community Transportation after you have booked your appointment. If you do not have online access, please contact 211.
Preparing for an appointment
The following people need to consult their healthcare provider to discuss vaccination risks and benefits before their appointment and will be required to verbally attest that they have done so:
- Pregnant individuals
- Those receiving stem cell therapy, CAR-T therapy, chemotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and other targeted agents
It is also recommended that you do not receive another vaccine in the 14 days prior to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Double booking and complications
There’s been numerous reports of the Provincial system reportedly double booking appointments in the March 23-25 period; as a consequence of this technical error, many of these appointments have been temporarily delayed. Unfortunately, some of the appointments affected were at Eva James Memorial Community Centre in Kanata.
The Province is re-booking the appointments. If your appointment is affected, you will receive a call to re-schedule or an email from the Ministry of Health advising you to call the Provincial Vaccine Booking Line at 1-833-943-3900 to reschedule your appointment. The Province is working diligently to fix bugs and errors in the system so that the rollout process can be streamlined.
Walk-ins will not be accepted, so please book your appointment in advance.
This includes walk-ins at the end of the day. Any remaining doses at the end of the day will be administered to eligible health care workers who have indicated they are available for a last-minute appointment.
First Nation, Métis and Inuit populations
Ottawa Public Health is partnering with Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health to provide a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for First Nation, Inuit and Métis community members age 40 and over at the St-Laurent Complex, located at 525 Côté Street. Call 613-691-5505 to book an appointment.
Akausivik Inuit Family Health Team is providing vaccinations for all Inuit adults. To book an appointment with Akausivik or for more information, call 613-740-0999.
For more information, please visit OttawaPublicHealth.ca/IndigenousVaccine
As announced last Thursday, Ottawa moved back to the Red-Control level of the provincial COVID-19 response framework. While it is wonderful to see that COVID-19 vaccinations are being made available to additional groups of our population, we need to continue following the guidelines of Ottawa Public Health.
Please limit contacts and interactions, stay home as much as possible and especially if you are sick, wear a mask, wash your hands often and get tested if you think you may be infected. Doing these things will help decrease levels in our community to avoid another lockdown.
Stay safe. Be COVIDWise.
Take Care,
Jenna Sudds