SIMCOE MUSKOKA – Adults 75 and older can pre-register now and throughout the weekend for their COVID-19 vaccine appointment through the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s website at www.smdhu.org and, as of Monday, directly book their appointment using the provincial booking system.

This age group includes people born in 1946 or earlier and joins high priority frontline health care workers in accordance with the Ministry of Health’s Guidance on Health Care Worker Prioritization; essential caregivers of residents in long-term care and retirement homes; all Indigenous adults and their household members; and adult recipients of chronic home care as those who are eligible to pre-register.

Once a person has pre-registered on the health unit website they will be placed in the queue to receive a vaccine appointment. They will be sent an email invitation from the province with a booking code to book their appointment on the provincial booking system. Both first and second dose appointments will be generated at this time.

Anyone who received their first COVID-19 immunization prior to March 10 are reminded that their second dose appointment has been cancelled and will be rebooked later. Second doses are now being given 16 weeks after the first dose as recommended by the National Advisory Committee for Immunization. This allows Ontario to maximize the number of people who can benefit from the strong protection provided by the first dose.

More information about how to book the second dose appointment will be shared in early May.

More than 62,000 doses of vaccine have already been administered in Simcoe Muskoka, including to those most vulnerable in long-term care and retirement homes. For more information about the COVID-19 immunization roll out, please see www.smdhu.org.

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