News Release
June 16, 2021

The City of Toronto continues to respond to COVID-19. Today, Mayor John Tory, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa and Fire Chief and General Manager of the Office of Emergency Management Matthew Pegg provided an update on the Team Toronto effort to vaccinate people as quickly as possible.

Today, Mayor Tory announced Team Toronto has hit a new vaccination all-time high record with the seven-day average now at 44,675 total doses per day.

There are 84 new cases of COVID-19 in Toronto today. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 169,003 cases in the city. There are 605 people hospitalized. To date, there have been 3,463 COVID-19 deaths in Toronto. In total, 163,968 people have recovered. Case status data can be found on Toronto Public Health’s reporting dashboard.

Mayor Tory also provided an update on the City’s VaxTO campaign, which launched on May 26 to help connect residents with COVID-19 vaccination information and resources. Starting tonight, the City will host five targeted, local telephone town hall meetings in areas that are part of the Sprint Strategy 2.0, with more to come in July.  Hosted by the local Councillors, with a panel that includes Chief Pegg, an Associate Medical Officer of Health and the local Vaccine Engagement Team lead, the five local telephone town halls confirmed for June are:

  • Wednesday, June 16 – Crescent Town and Oakridge
  • Thursday, June 17 – Etobicoke North
  • Tuesday, June 22 – Humber River Black Creek
  • Wednesday, June 23 – Willowdale East
  • Tuesday, June 29 – Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park

Since launch, the VaxTO campaign has called more than 870,000 phone numbers across the city to share vaccine and town hall information, connected 6,200 people to the provincial booking line, reached more than 840,000 Torontonians through targeted digital ads and received more than 10,000 messages to the text line, which now offers 14 language options and a postal code lookup to provide residents with a list of their nearest City-run vaccination clinics and pharmacies. In addition to the telephone town halls, the campaign will continue to support the Sprint Strategy 2.0 through targeted and localized broadcast voice messages and multilingual digital ads.

Toronto residents wanting to learn more about the town halls as well as other VaxTO campaign information and vaccination resources are encouraged to text VACCINE to 1-833-750-0888.

Toronto is home to more than 2.9 million people whose diversity and experiences make this great city Canada’s leading economic engine and one of the world’s most diverse and livable cities. As the fourth largest city in North America, Toronto is a global leader in technology, finance, film, music, culture and innovation, and consistently places at the top of international rankings due to investments championed by its government, residents and businesses. For more information visit the City’s website or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Media Relations