Ontario is pausing COVID-19 vaccinations of long-term care staff and essential caregivers so that it can focus on administering the shots to all nursing home residents amid a shortage of doses.
The province is currently dealing with a delay in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with no shots expected to arrive this week.
The government says the shift in the focus of its vaccine plan means all long-term care home residents, high-risk retirement home residents and First Nations elder care residents will get the first dose of the vaccine by Feb. 5.
That's sooner than a previous goal of Feb. 15, but the earlier plan had included the vaccination of long-term care staff and caregivers as well.
The government says it expects 26,325 Pfizer-BioNTech doses next week, which are far fewer than the amount originally expected.
A total of 286,110 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province so far.