One university, three clinics: How U of T supported Canada's mass vaccination effort
Published: July 23, 2021
As part of the largest vaccination campaign in Canadian history, the University of Toronto is proud to have hosted vaccination clinics across its three campuses, U of T leaders say.
Working in collaboration with Trillium Health Partners and Peel Public Health, U of T Mississauga was the first of the three campuses to host a mass vaccination site. The clinic opened on March 1, near the beginning of the pandemic’s third wave.
“The clinic provided the city of Mississauga with its first site for mass vaccination at precisely the point when it mattered most,” says Alexandra Gillespie, vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga. “In the four months since then, the clinic has administered more than 215,000 vaccine doses.
“It's 20 per cent of the total doses administered across the entire Peel region to support the health of our local community that always gives so much to us.
A few weeks later, a second clinic opened on the St. George campus in downtown Toronto, where the university worked with University Health Network and Sinai Health to transform an exam centre into a mass vaccination site.
“This is a great example of how we leverage our downtown Toronto location, as well as partnering with our incredible faculty, staff and students to deliver vaccines to our community,” says Ron Saporta, chief operating officer, property services and sustainability.
More recently, U of T Scarborough opened a vaccination pop-up clinic in Highland Hall after hosting a mass testing centre at the same location.
“Our partners at the Scarborough Health Network, tested thousands of people to ensure that people who tested positive got the care they deserved,” says U of T Scarborough’s chief administrative officer, Andrew Arifuzzaman.
The university also hosted a vaccine clinic pow wow in June and pop-up clinics on the St. George campus to provide Indigenous Peoples with a culturally safe place to receive their vaccinations. Faculty, staff and students have also helped run pop-up clinics in COVID-19 hot spots across the city.
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