Highest Priority Health Care Workers 

All hospital and acute care staff in frontline roles with COVID-19 patients and/or with a high-risk of exposure to COVID-19, including those performing aerosol-generating procedures

• Critical care units
• Emergency departments and urgent care departments
• COVID-19 medical units
• Code blue teams, rapid response teams
• General internal medicine and other specialists involved in the direct care of COVID-19 positive patients

All patient-facing health care workers involved in the COVID-19 response

• COVID-19 specimen collection centers (e.g., assessment centers, community COVID-19 testing locations)
• Teams supporting outbreak response (e.g., IPAC teams supporting outbreak management, inspectors in the patient environment, redeployed health care workers supporting outbreaks or staffing crisis in congregate living settings)
• COVID-19 vaccine clinics and mobile immunization teams
• Mobile testing teams COVID-19 isolation centers
• COVID-19 laboratory services

• ORNGE, paramedics
• Firefighters and police providing medical first response

Community health care workers serving specialized populations

• Needle exchange/syringe programs, supervised consumption and treatment services
• Aboriginal health access centers, Indigenous community health centers, Indigenous interprofessional primary care teams, and Indigenous nurse practitioner-led clinics
• Home and community care health care workers caring for recipients of chronic homecare and seniors in congregate living facilities or providing hands-on care to COVID-19 patients in the community

Special considerations for the following:

o Community health centers serving disproportionally affected communities and/or communities experiencing highest burden of health, social and economic impacts from COVID-19

o Highly critical health care workers in remote and hard to access communities, e.g., sole practitioner

Acute care and other hospital settings   

• Patient care areas not included in Highest Priority (e.g., surgical care, obstetrics, etc.) 

Congregate settings

• Assisted living, correctional settings, residential facilities, hospices and palliative care settings, shelters, supportive housing (outside of Highest Priority level) 

Community care with high risk of exposure and serving specialized patient populations   

• Community health centers, home and community care (outside of the Highest Priority level), adult day programs for seniors 

Other health care services for Indigenous populations

• Community agencies with patient-facing providers delivering any type of health services to First Nations communities and Indigenous Peoples that are not captured in Highest Priority

Community care with high risk of exposure and serving the general population

• Birth centres, community based specialists, death investigation professionals (including funeral home staff handling deceased persons and entering healthcare facilities), dentistry, gynecology/obstetrics, midwifery, nurse practitioner-led clinics / contract nursing agencies, otolaryngology (ENT), pharmacies, primary care, respirology (respiratory therapy), walk-in clinics

• Those who are either patient facing or work with lab specimens

• Developmental services, mental health and addictions services 

Community care with lower risk of exposure and serving general population

• Campus health, community diagnostic imaging, daycare/school nursing, dietary/ nutrition, independent health facilities (e.g., opticians/optometry, podiatry, audiology, medical and surgical specialties, naturopathy/holistic care, social work, sexual health clinics)

Non-acute rehabilitation and therapy

• Chiropractic, chronic pain clinics, kinesiology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, registered massage therapy / acupuncture, other therapy 

•  All other public health

• E.g. those working remotely and who do not require PPE to work