Toronto Mayor John Tory and city medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa announced plans to fully vaccinate 90 per cent of residents with a new initiative, as well as a framework to vaccinate children ages five to 11 once full approval is given by the federal government and Health Canada.

The new vaccination plan is called Vax in the Six, headed by Team Toronto. "The six" is a pop culture reference to the six municipalities that make up Toronto and was popularized by rapper, Drake, in 2016.

The taskforce has been responsible for the rollout of mobile clinics that target specific neighbourhoods with low vaccination rates. This follows the previous initiative, VaxGiving, earlier in the month.

Similar to other placements, the clinics will be held in high traffic areas including TTC stations, malls, and community centres.

About 83 per cent of eligible Toronto residents are fully vaccinated, and 87 per cent have received their first vaccination, according to the City of Toronto website.

"We know when it is easy to get the vaccine, more people get vaccinated," said Tory. "That is why we have administered more than 4000 vaccine doses in TTC clinic stations, and it is why we are ramping up those efforts this week across our transit system. We have vaccinated millions, and we are now just down to thousands left to get vaccinated to reach our target of 90 per cent."

Later in the press conference, Dr. de Villa outlines Toronto’s preparation for children to receive their vaccinations, including how the roll out will be, the need to vaccinate children, as well as how the city will deal with supply of vaccines.

Approval from Health Canada to administer the Pfizer to children ages five to 11 is still pending, while the United States recently approved, according to recent reports.

"If you are a parent or guardian someone aged five to 11, I ask you think about getting your children vaccinated once [the]vaccine is approved for this group, as we hope it will be in the coming weeks," de Villa said.

The province is averaging about 400 positive cases per day this week. The positivity rate stands at 1.5 per cent according to Health Canada.

More details are to follow.

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