Immunocompromised Ontarians can book 4th COVID-19 shot starting today

Immunocompromised Ontarians can book appointments for a fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine starting Friday morning.

The province’s chief medical officers of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, says appointments will be made available by calling the provincial vaccine contact centre at 1-833-943-3900 starting at 8 a.m.

Moore said the fourth dose aims as providing further protection for vulnerable populations like those who are moderate to severely immunocompromised.

They must be booked at least three months after receiving the third dose.

You might be eligible if you are:

• a transplant recipient (including solid organ transplant and hematopoietic stem cell transplants)
• receiving stable, active treatment (chemotherapy, targeted therapies, immunotherapy) for a malignant hematologic disorder or solid tumor
• in receipt of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cell
• an individual with moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (for example, DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome)
• Stage 3 or advanced untreated HIV infection and those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
• undergoing active treatment with the following categories of immunosuppressive therapies: anti-B cell therapies (monoclonal antibodies targeting CD19, CD20 and CD22), high-dose systemic corticosteroids, alkylating agents, antimetabolites, or tumor-necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors and other biologic agents that are significantly immunosuppressive or are taking specific immunosuppressant medications (PDF)
• receiving dialysis (hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis)

Fourth doses have already been administered to those in long-term care homes, retirement homes and other congregate settings.

Moore also said transplant patients are lagging in getting their third doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, which is considered part of their primary series of shots.