More Torontonians will be able to receive their doses of a new COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.

Anyone aged six months or older will be able to receive free doses of the KP.2 vaccine, says Toronto Public Health, and will not need an Ontario Health Card to receive the vaccine.

Where can I get vaccinated against COVID-19?

Provincial funding for mass vaccination clinics ended last year, prompting the City of Toronto to permanently close its four fixed COVID-19 vaccination centers in December 2023.

Although these clinics no longer exist, COVID-19 vaccines can be found at some pharmacies or through participating health care providers.

That said, Toronto Public Health continues to offer clinics for children aged six months to four years, with parents able to book appointments online.

Torontonians can find a full list of pharmacies administering COVID-19 vaccines on the province’s website, where they provide opening hours, contact information and appointment details.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital, could not comment recently on exact vaccination rates in Toronto, but said they are lower “than what would be useful.”

“Essentially, we should really be doubling down on vaccinating the most vulnerable individuals,” Bogoch said. “There are many vaccination programs in long-term care facilities and senior residences, but some homebound seniors may be vulnerable and cannot be vaccinated. »

Toronto Public Health says mobile vaccination teams are providing doses to underhoused people and shelter residents, while Toronto Paramedic Services can provide COVID-19 and flu shots to anyone confined to their home. the house.

What should I know about this vaccine?

This particular vaccine was designed for Omicron’s KP.2 subline, which was approved by Health Canada in September. Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine, Comirnaty, replaces the previous version which targeted the XBB 1.5 Omicron subvariant.

“There’s a bit of an arms race going on between the virus mutating and us trying to create a vaccine that most closely resembles the circulating strain. We’ll never get things perfect,” Bogoch told CTV News Toronto in an interview Wednesday.

Currently in Canada, however, the strain with the highest number of positive cases is the Omicron KP.3.1.1 variant, which is a subvariant of the XEC strain, a hybrid of the KS.1.1 and KP subvariants. 3.3. This variant accounts for 48.4 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the country as of October 13, according to the latest data from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“The good news is that at any point in the pandemic in Canada, regardless of which vaccine is deployed and regardless of which COVID variant is circulating at any given time, the vaccine has consistently done a remarkable job of reducing risk of serious infections, such as hospitalizations and deaths, especially among the most vulnerable people,” Bogoch said.

“It’s not a perfect match, because it’s never going to be a perfect match.”

With files from Hunter Crowther of CTVNews.ca