How to be notified about last-minute COVID-19 vaccine appointments at Ottawa clinics

OTTAWA -

The City of Ottawa has expanded a tool for health-care workers to the entire population to help residents get a COVID-19 vaccine more quickly.

Residents can now sign up on a waiting list to be informed if a vaccination appointment becomes available that same day at a community clinic. Residents who are at least 12 can sign up for a first dose, and anyone who received their first dose on or before May 9, or who is considered a highest-risk health-care worker as defined by the province, can sign up for notifications about a second dose.

"The wait-list tool was initially implemented for highest risk health-care workers and is now being expanded for use by all eligible residents," the city said in a release. "This tool helps residents receive a vaccine more quickly, and also helps the clinics operate more efficiently by enabling them to administer all of the vaccines prepared for use each day."

These last-minute bookings are meant to help with unclaimed doses and could become available at any time of the day. Late last week, the head of Ottawa's vaccination rollout said the city was seeing between 300 and 400 no-shows a day at community clinics, but said no doses are going to waste.

Residents who sign up will be asked to arrive by a particular time and can choose to accept the appointment or not.

The tool on the city's website resets at 11:59 p.m. daily, so you will have to register each day you wish to be notified about a possible last-minute appointment. You can also select where in the city you'd like to receive a dose: central, east, or west, or a combination of all three.

If you already have an appointment booked, you can still sign up. You're asked to cancel your booked appointment upon receiving your vaccine should a last-minute dose become available.

Community clinics in Ottawa offer the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines, which are interchangeable.

You can sign up for last-minute doses here.

For all other COVID-19 vaccine booking options in Ottawa, see here.