Peel Region’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh spoke at a press conference Wednesday, imploring residents to take whatever vaccine first becomes available to them. 

This comes days after Ontario laid out its “roadmap to reopening”— a three-stage process that is wholly centred around vaccination compliance.

Dr. Loh says in the conference: 

I want to remind people that getting the vaccine — any vaccine available — is your own and our collective path forward to support reopening.

“Even if you’ve had COVID previously”: Peel Region’s top doctor says vaccine is our ‘collective path’ to reopening

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Dr. Loh goes on on to emphasize that everyone, without exception, ought to get the vaccine:

Even if you’ve had COVID previously, even if you’re young and healthy, even if you’re sticking to all the precautions: waiting leaves you vulnerable, and leaves any infection with COVID potentially up to chance. I encourage you to take whatever vaccine becomes available to you and help us draw this acute phase to a conclusion.

These statements follow fluctuating guidance around safe use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as uncertainty expressed by a Health Canada staffer as to whether vaccination will be sufficient to “return everything to ‘normal.’”