No vaccine waste in Ottawa despite close to 400 daily appointment no-shows

About 400 COVID-19 vaccine appointments are missed each day by Ottawa residents, but the city's General Manager of Emergency and Protective Services says those vaccine doses are not going to waste.

“If there are, let's say 100 no-shows at a clinic at the end of the day, those 100 vaccines aren't lost because they're not thawed out and are not prepared or diluted,” says Anthony Di Monte. “We have a process in place, for the end of each day. We have a list of priority groups, often priority health care workers, etc., that we're able get through those 100 doses often with them, and if all of those don't get used, the doses are still good for the next day.”

Di Monte says, so far, the city hasn't wasted any vaccines because of no-shows, but they are monitoring the situation very closely because the number of appointment's going vacant seems to be increasing. 

On the flipside, many Ottawa residents have been scrambling to get a vaccine appointment in the capital in recent weeks. 

“This is the good part of the challenge we're in right now, is that more people want the vaccine than we have bookings available. It's good in the way that it means when vaccines become available, there are people ready to take them,” says Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa's medical officer of health.

According to Di Monte, many of the no-shows are being caused by the province allowing residents to move up their vaccine appointments. 

“It's not a glitch, but if you booked through the [provincial vaccine booking] system today to advance your second dose, your appointment will only be eliminated in four days so there's a process there that's creating a bit of a no-show,” he says. 

The province has recently launched a tool to help residents reschedule or cancel their vaccination appointments, which Di Monte expects will help mitigate the number of no-shows. Residents can find the tool here.