Eligibility for 4th COVID-19 vaccine doses opens Thursday. Here's how to get yours in Waterloo region

Fourth doses are available to everyone in Ontario over the age of 18 on Thursday, but Region of Waterloo Public Health doesn't plan to re-open its mass vaccination clinics to administer the shots.

Instead, it will continue to focus on community-based vaccination clinics, delivered through local pharmacies, doctors offices, smaller regionally run clinics and in public spaces like libraries and community centres. 

"What we're going to be doing is trying to enhance the current system that we have in place," Region of Waterloo medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said.

"They're not these mass clinics anymore, there isn't the need for that type of volume," Wang said in an interview with CBC News.

"But also when we have more access points, multiple pharmacies and primary care — doctors in the community — it's easier for residents to get a vaccine, it's more convenient, they have more choices."

But, she said, if demand outstrips capacity, public health will consider whether reopening the mass clinics is warranted.

Appointments needed at first

On Wednesday, Ontario's chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore announced the province was opening up eligibility for fourth doses to the general public, and fifth doses for people with compromised immune systems. 

People who had a first booster shot at least five months ago will be able to book an appointment to get a second. People who have had a COVID-19 infection must wait at least three months.

While appointments haven't been needed for months, that will change for at least the first week of vaccine availability when demand is highest, Wang said.

For the first time, people in Waterloo region will use the Ontario online portal to book appointments with Region of Waterloo Public Health, instead of the regionally run website. Appointments with doctors' offices and pharmacies are booked using their own booking systems.

Moore said on Wednesday that most Ontarians under 60 have strong protection against the virus more than six months after their first booster, but expanding fourth-dose eligibility will ensure they can make an "informed decision" based on their personal circumstances.

Protect against hospitalization

Meanwhile, Wang suggests it may be time for people to adjust the way they think about immunity from vaccine or infection. 

"There's immunity against the infection and there's immunity against severe outcomes," Wang said. 

She said while the BA.5 subvariant is believed to escape antibody responses from both people who have been vaccinated and those who have had a previous version of COVID-19, there's still value in the vaccine.

"Basically what we're aiming for in this era of Omicron — where the infection is very transmissible — is: You can do what you can to prevent it, but you know that you can't always prevent it. And that's OK. Keeping up with your vaccines will allow you the best chances of preventing severe outcomes," she said.

"The vaccine still offers strong protection against someone sick enough to be hospitalized. That protection against severe outcomes tends to still be quite solid, up to 90 per cent."

According to wastewater testing by the University of Waterloo, the Omicron variant BA.5 has now become the dominant strain in Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo. 

It first appeared in the region's wastewater in June.