'The variants are ahead by a mile,' says de Villa as Toronto's COVID-19 cases surge

The City of Toronto hit a milestone Wednesday, having administeredmore than half a million COVID-19 vaccine doses since immunizations began in the province, the most of any region in Ontario.

The announcementcomes as the province facesa surging third wave. The number of COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICUprovince-wide hit 421,surpassing the previous pandemic high set in mid-January.

Toronto Public Healthreported 883new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, including 330 people in hospital, 53 in the ICU and sevenmore deaths. More than 8,000 total cases were of variants of concern.

"Ifthe current situation is described as a race, the variants are ahead by a mile," said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de VillaWednesday, pleading with the public to stay home.

"At this point, the vaccines are nowhere near close to providing widespread protection."

City officials urged residentseligibleto be vaccinatedto sign up at one of the fivemass vaccination sites. There are currently 12,000 appointments available from Wednesday to Sunday, said Fire Chief Matthew Pegg,general manager of emergency management. Appointments take less than 30 minutes.

Mayor John Tory said he's asked the province to allow Toronto residents 60 years and overto sign up for vaccinations and will be announcing more details soon. The province needs to tweakitssoftware to accept health cards from people in this younger age group, he said.

"It makes sense for us if we have the clinics, appointments, professionals, vaccines," Tory said. "Now is the time to do it. There's no time like the present," Tory said.

York and Halton regions have opened up appointments to people 65 years of age and up.

• Here's where to find out if you're eligible to be vaccinated

New funding for vaccine outreach

The city also says itis giving community organizations $370,000 to reach out to South Asian and Black communities with vaccine information,combat vaccine hesitancyand assist people with special needs in getting vaccinated, the mayor said.

Another lockdown could be coming to the city in the days ahead. Premier Doug Ford told reporters to expect an announcement Thursday, before the Easter long weekend.

Along with federal government officials, Tory andFord announced on Wednesdaya $925-millionplan to expand vaccine manufacturing at aSanofi PasteurLtd. facility in North York Wednesday morning. It will be up and running by 2027 and supply enough influenza vaccine doses to protect all Canadians, a newsrelease said.

"Today is an actual, tangible demonstration that we've all learned lessons from the pandemic and are doing something about it," said Tory at the newsconference.