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Has the advice to increase vaccination in hot spots improved equity in Ontario?

Coronavirus Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine

Wellesley Institute reported that areas in Ontario with higher rates of COVID-19 tend to have lower rates of vaccination, and that this pattern is greatest in the City of Toronto. Since the publication of that analysis, the Province of Ontario has asked public health units to increase vaccination efforts in COVID-19 “hot spots”; the 114 forward sortation areas (FSAs) with the highest rates of infection.

The change, which took place on April 7, aimed to get vaccines to the places they are most needed. This report analyzes the impact of this change in vaccination strategy on vaccine equity.

Vaccination hot spot strategyDownload
James Iveniuk

James Iveniuk

Dr. James Iveniuk, PhD, studies social networks, cognition and health over the life course. He is a former full-time researcher at Wellesley Institute.

Kwame McKenzie

Kwame McKenzie

Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of Wellesley Institute, which works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the Greater Toronto Area. A practicing psychiatrist, he also holds positions as a full Professor at the University of Toronto and as the Director of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). As an international expert on the social causes of illness and the development of equitable social policy and health systems, Dr. McKenzie has advised health, housing, education and social services ministers in Canada and the U.K. and has authored more than 280 peer reviewed papers and six books. He is a member of the National Advisory Council on Poverty, and recently co-chaired Canada’s Expert Task Force on Substance Use. He has also worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization. Dr. McKenzie has been a columnist for The Guardian and The Times and a presenter for BBC Radio, and he is regularly published in the Toronto Star.