Hamilton, a Canadian port city on Lake Ontario, has responded to a jump in Covid-19 cases by making vaccines available to all adults in “hot spot” neighborhoods, but only to residents whose skin isn’t white.
The city expanded vaccine eligibility to “black and other racialized” people aged 18 and older who live in five zip codes where the current outbreak is most acute. A special clinic set up to vaccinate only non-white residents filled its appointment book in just a few hours last week.
COVID-19 vaccine appointments are now available for Black and other racialized populations/people of colour ages 18+ who live in postal codes L9C, L8W, L8L, L8N and L9K at the COVID-19 vaccine clinic at FIRSTONTARIO CENTRE, Friday to Sunday this coming week.
— City of Hamilton (@cityofhamilton) April 24, 2021
The move comes amid a Covid-19 case surge so severe that Ontario Premier Doug Ford earlier this month set up checkpoints at the province’s borders with Manitoba and Quebec, and tightened already severe lockdown restrictions. With the province unable to secure enough vaccine doses as new strains cause the virus to spread more quickly, Ford said “we’re losing the battle between the variants and the vaccines.”
