Despite what’s listed on the province’s COVID-19 vaccine page, local pharmacies cannot take appointments over the phone for those eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine. Instead, you’ll need to register online.
Today, the province released a new list of pharmacies able to provide the AstraZeneca vaccine—when supply permits.
Phone lines to the Shoppers Drug Mart in Huntsville have been jammed with people trying to book a vaccine appointment, said owner and pharmacist, Dana Murdy, but “we can’t help them.”
People eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine can register their interest in an appointment online with Shoppers Drug Mart here: covid-19.shoppersdrugmart.ca. Once registered, an invitation to book a time will be sent to the person when there is a vaccine available for them, said Murdy.
The Rexall location in Bracebridge is also on the province’s new list of pharmacies offering the vaccine. They are taking online registrations as well. Their registration website notes that “Rexall has set up a ‘waitlist’ booking platform in order to help us book appointments for eligible patients as we receive vaccines. We will notify you when you are eligible to book a COVID-19 vaccine with Rexall. Appointments will be limited and being on the waitlist does not guarantee an appointment due to limited supply of vaccine.” The registration site for Rexall is rexall.ca/covid-19/vaccines.
The Gravenhurst IDA is taking online registrations here.
Both the Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall sites currently note that they are only vaccinating people over the age of 60 (born in 1961 or earlier), although the province has said that those 55 and older are eligible.
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Laura Kosowan says
I think Doug Ford played the biggest April Fool’s joke on us this year!
I was so happy to hear on April 1st that more pharmacies would be delivering Covid vaccines. Yeah, for my husband and I, as we met the age criteria. I had preregistered with Shoppers last week and saw that our local store would be included as of April 1st. The GOVERNMENT OF ONTARIO website listed our Huntsville location with information to CALL to book an appointment. Doug Ford wouldn’t steer me wrong, would he? Come on, Folks.
So I phoned and of course the line was busy. Sorry Dana, but I was just following Doug’s orders. When I finally got through, a message said to preregister online. But I had already done that the week before. Now what? I must have listened to the message menu 5 times trying to figure out what to do. So I went to the Shoppers website to see if something had changed. No, I was already preregistered. Now what? I think maybe the GOVERNMENT OF ONTARIO and Doug Ford should make sure that everything is in place BEFORE they make announcements like this, because my level of anger was only increased by the confusion. I gave up in frustration after a couple of hours and figured that we would probably miss out on this round of vaccines and have to wait.
Then this morning, on Good Friday, my invitation from Shoppers to book my vaccine! Praise Doug Ford! A Miracle! My husband received his invitation a couple of hours later. So we have our appointments for next Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Once again the mixed messages and confusion from THE GOVERNMENT OF ONTARIO and Doug Ford has given me a headache. So sorry, Dana to be one of the people jamming up your phone lines. Looking forward to coming to Shoppers this week to get vaccinated. Guess we all had an April Fool’s joke played on us! Good luck to everyone else who went through the frustration I went through. Hopefully we will get our 2nd jab in August or maybe sooner? Come on, Folks, as Doug would say. Maybe he should have said, April Fool’s, Folks? Hope he hasn’t decided to take a trip to his Muskoka cottage to check the plumbing this year, as he did last year when we had just been put into our first lockdown! Or is that a shutdown? Or circuit breaker? Or just a brake? Words matter, Doug. Words matter!
Douglas Austin says
Same experience as Laura. Thankfully the person I spoke to at Huntsville Shoppers was patient
– THANK YOU- and gave me the correct way to register for the shot.
Never thought I’d be looking forward to a needle, but this is different. …’Git-er-done’