Is Ottawa getting shortchanged on vaccines?
The situation seems at odds with the reality in some other regions of Ontario, Mayor Jim Watson wrote to Premier Doug Ford. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia  Article content When Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson sent a letter to Premier Doug Ford this week asking for 40,000 more doses of vaccine, it wasnt the first time he has expressed frustration about Ottawas apparent COVID-19 vaccine gap. Since February, the mayor has spoken numerous times with Ottawa cabinet minister Lisa MacLeod and with Dr. Homer Tien, who leads Ontarios COVID-19 vaccine rollout, about the citys vaccine allocation. Ottawa Public Health and city vaccination officials have also been pushing for more vaccines. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Back to video In late March, Watson said the city was getting fewer vaccines on a per capita basis than other municipalities. Last week, Anthony Di Monte, the citys general manager for emergency and protective services, warned that, if the province allowed people 70 and over to book quicker second doses, it would add up to 80,000 people looking for appointments in June that are simply not available in Ottawa. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content This week, frustrations boiled over across the city as many people were unable to book those accelerated second doses. The situation seems at odds with the reality in some other regions of Ontario, the mayor wrote to Ford. The Ontario government does not release the number of weekly doses it sends to Public Health Units, but a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said the allocations were based on data combined with population-based considerations that factor in regional differences and needs. Ottawa is receiving more doses per capita than several other public health units according to government officials. The city is expected to receive an additional 5,000 doses this week on top of its per capita allocations. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Still, based on vaccination coverage, the fact that demand has continuously outstripped supply and that there are fewer pharmacies with vaccines in the city, it appears Ottawa has received fewer doses than other parts of the province  particularly the GTA. As of Tuesday, 68 per cent of Ottawa residents had received at least one dose of vaccine, according to Ottawa Public Health, compared with more than 72 per cent province-wide. In Toronto, more than 70 per cent of residents had at least one dose as of June 1, and numbers have risen since then. According to data compiled by retired mathematical statistician Bill Comeau using OHIP records, many parts of Ottawa had vaccination rates below 50 per cent at a time when rates in much of the GTA were above 60 per cent. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Some of those vaccinated Ottawa residents had to travel out of town to get jabbed  to Kingston or elsewhere  because vaccinations did not start to roll out in pharmacies here until weeks after Kingston, Toronto and Windsor. When pharmacies began vaccinating in Ottawa, they did so slowly and the majority of those initially participating were located in provincial Progressive Conservative ridings around the edges of urban Ottawa. There are currently 195 pharmacies in Ottawa administering COVID-19 vaccines, a fraction of 2,400 participating pharmacies across the province. Ottawa Centre NDP MPP Joel Harden thinks it is part of a pattern when it comes to the provincial government and the City of Ottawa. It really seems as if Ottawa is an afterthought with the Ford government and that is a problem. One million people live here and we have a lot of hot spots, he said. I really feel as if they dont get Ottawa and I dont understand why.  Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content There are reasons why vaccination rates might be uneven across the province and even across the city. On the advice of its Science Advisory Table, Ontario began focusing on provincial hot spots where case counts and positivity were highest during the third wave of the pandemic. Many of the hardest hit areas were in Peel and Toronto. Those areas had special clinics set up to increase local vaccination rates, some running 24/7, and for two weeks in May 50 per cent of the provinces vaccine supply was directed to hot spots. The province identified just three hot spots in Ottawa and one was controversial: a small area in cabinet minister Merrilee Fullertons riding that didnt seem to meet the criteria for hot spots. Ottawa Public Health had independently identified more than a dozen high-risk neighbourhoods in the city where it ran special clinics, when supplies allowed. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content The province is now receiving millions of vaccine doses every week and record numbers of residents are being vaccinated, including in Ottawa. But, as the province has broadened eligibility Ottawas vaccine supplies have not kept up. Ottawa South Liberal MPP John Fraser says he has been receiving numerous calls from frustrated residents unable to book vaccines, something he isnt hearing of in the rest of the province. If you look at how many people are frustrated with accelerated second doses and you look across the province you dont see that same level of frustration, he said. Fraser also said the people of Ottawa deserved an explanation about what was going on. We have had a problem since last Monday (when glitches and shortages of appointments made it difficult for people over 80 in the city to book second appointments), and the government hasnt responded in any meaningful way.  Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Fraser has been asking the province for transparency about how many doses are going to various parts of the province. People understand that more vaccines should go to areas with higher cases counts, such as Peel, but they should be able to see the numbers. He says he fears the frustrations will mean some vulnerable people just dont bother to get accelerated second doses. People are getting frustrated and they are just giving up. It is just too much for them. Harden noted that Ottawa physician Dr. Nili Kaplan Myrth and her team of volunteers vaccinated 500 people during her third Jabapalooza event last Sunday. He said he didnt know why more family doctors were vaccinating Ottawa residents. Share this article in your social network        Latest National Stories Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Ottawa Citizen Headline News Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. Email Address There was an error, please provide a valid email address. 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