More people in northern Ontario can now book appointments for COVID-19 vaccines

A wider demographic in northeastern Ontario can now sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine, now that350 more pharmacies will be administering doses of AstraZeneca to people age 55 and older.

In the northeast, each public health unit has at least three pharmacies on the list.

Richard Procunier, a pharmacist and one of the owners of Northern Shores pharmacy in North Bay, says he wasexcited to learn his pharmacy was on the list.

"This is the way that we get out of the pandemic. I feel that vaccinations are the way that we get back to some semblance of normalcy," he said.

"I think everybody in Canada has been wanting to obviously do that. It's been a rough year, and I think that this is the light at the proverbial end of the tunnel."

The pharmacy system is organized separately from the mass vaccination clinics run by Public Health units. People who are 70 and older are eligible for vaccines through their health unit in the rest of the northeast, at the moment.

Procunier says since the province announced the extra pharmacy sites last week, calls from the public have been pouring in.

"Which is really a good thing, I think. It shows that there's a lot of people who are on board and want to get it," he said.

"My concern initially was that there would be a lot of vaccine hesitancy for people getting the vaccine, but it looks like that a lot of people on board with it."

People age 55 and older are eligible, and can book directly through a pharmacy.