The Ford government says its starting up a $70 million flu immunization campaign, the largest of its kind in Ontario’s history.
Premier Doug Ford says the campaign is part of the province’s plan to prepare the health system for the second wave of COVID-19.
He says it will be more challenging because of the flu season and the because of the need to avoid cancelling hospital surgeries.
“We’ve been working through the summer to put in place a robust and comprehensive plan to tackle a potential, more challenging second wave of COVID-19,” said Premier Ford. “It’s important that we prepare for any scenario in order to protect all of our citizens, especially our seniors and most vulnerable. Our government is doing everything it can to defeat this deadly virus, including delivering an unprecedented flu shot campaign to maintain capacity in our hospitals.”
Up to 5 million flu shot vaccines have been ordered in the province with 1.3 million being a special high dose for seniors.
The Keeping Ontarians Safe plan will:
- Maintain strong public health measures, including continued expansion of testing and case and contact management;
- Quickly identify, manage and prevent COVID-19 outbreaks;
- Accelerate efforts to reduce health service backlogs;
- Prepare for surges in COVID-19 cases;
- Recruit, retain, train and support health care workers, while also continuing to engage families and caregivers; and
- Implement the largest flu immunization campaign in Ontario’s history.
The province will release details over the coming days.
