City of Toronto encouraging all Toronto residents to join “VaxTO” telephone town hall taking place Monday

The City of Toronto will be hosting a telephone town hall about the COVID-19 vaccination program on Monday, August 30 at 6 p.m. This telephone town hall is the final town hall in a series of nine that were held throughout the summer as part of the City’s VaxTO campaign. This city-wide event featuring 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 will provide Toronto residents with the opportunity to learn more about the City’s vaccination program and ask questions.

To promote the event, approximately 300,000 broadcast voice messages from the Mayor will be sent out to Torontonians on cell phones and landlines this weekend inviting them to the town hall and encouraging COVID-19 vaccination. Outreach is focused on residents living in Sprint Strategy 2.0 priority neighbourhoods with low vaccination rates, including those with M2H, M9R and M8Y postal codes, to help increase vaccination rates in those areas.

Residents who have questions about COVID-19 vaccines are encouraged to join the city-wide English-language telephone town hall by calling 1-833-490-0778 or by tuning in via webstream at www.toronto.ca/vaccinetownhall.

Earlier this week, the City hosted two telephone town halls, one in Portuguese and one in Spanish, in an effort to provide further support to Toronto’s Latin-Canadian/Hispanic/Latinx communities, which have experienced some of the highest reported COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Approximately 1,500 residents were able to ask live questions, in their home language, directly to their community leaders and local vaccine engagement teams.

The City’s VaxTO campaign, which launched this past spring, has helped connect thousands of residents with COVID-19 vaccination information and resources through a variety of targeted and multilingual outreach methods including texts, emails, telephone town halls, voice broadcasts, call centre outreach and digital advertising.

Quotes:

“I invite all residents to join our VaxTO telephone town hall on Monday, where we will share the latest information on the City’s COVID-19 vaccination program and answer as many live questions as possible. The telephone town hall series, which included neighbourhood-specific and multilingual sessions, has played a crucial role this summer in helping keep Torontonians informed and to removing barriers to vaccination.”
– Mayor John Tory

“The upcoming city-wide telephone town hall will provide residents with the opportunity to ask vaccine-related questions and receive the latest resources and information on COVID-19 vaccinations. This is part of our commitment through the VaxTO campaign to reach every resident, in every corner of the city, and to help them access the information, resources, and supports they need to get vaccinated.”
– Councillor Joe Cressy (Spadina-Fort York), Chair of the Toronto Board of Health

SOURCE: City of Toronto