Thunder Bay senior offered COVID vaccine appointment in Hamilton, Ottawa, Cornwall, Atikokan

An elderly man from Thunder Bay, Ont., was surprised when he called the provincial phone line to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment, only to be offered time slots in a variety of communities, most over 1,000 kilometres away.

Eric Johnson tried to book an appointment in Thunder Bay on the week of March 22.

He said once he reached the call centre, he gave his information, and was told there were no appointments available in Thunder Bay, but it was suggested he could travel over hundreds of kilometres to Hamilton, Ottawa or Cornwall to get a vaccine..

"I said, those are way out of my realm. I'm not going down there," Johnson said.

"He said, 'are you willing to travel' and said, yeah, and he said ,'well can you name me a couple of towns in your area.' I said Nipigon, Murillo, Kakabeka. He said, 'no, nothing there,' and then he tried to pronounce Atikokan."

Atikokan is about 200 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

Johnson said the person on the other end of line said there were vacancies in that community, and he accepted the appointment for early April.

He said speaking to some friends after the call, they informed him he would be travelling to another health unit's jurisdiction.

Johnson said he then called the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, which suggested he cancel the appointment out of town, and said he would be able to book locally.

Johnson said he will keep the Atikokan appointment, until he has a confirmed date in Thunder Bay.

Dr. Kit Young-Hoon, the medical officer of health for the Northwestern Health Unitwhich includesAtikokan, said she has heard anecdotally that there are people who are travelling to her health unit's jurisdiction to get a vaccine.

She said the vaccine is being distributed on a per-capita basis, so the access to appointments should be equal.

"They should be able to get it in Thunder Bay at the same, at the same opportunity level," she said.

As for travelling between areas, Young-Hoon said, "they could be potentially be bringing COVID-19 with them."

In a statement emailed to CBC News, the Ministry of Health said"thanks to the incredible efforts of our health care partners rapidly administering the vaccine, some areas may exhaust their supply quickly."

"Ontarians should ideally get their vaccination within their public health region to help manage vaccine allocations, however, this is not a restriction," the statement said.