The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is opening up eligibility for second doses of an mRNA COVID vaccine.
As of 8 a.m. on Saturday, anybody who received their first dose on or before June 2 will be eligible to book a second dose.
Despite the provincial system opening up to everyone over the age of 18 as of Monday, Health Unit CEO Theresa Marentette says Windsor-Essex will get there soon.
"We have made it to June 2, we know that 80,000 people are due and they will have passed that 28-day marker." she says. "So the province has opened it up on their provincial booking system, we have opened it up to June 2 and we'll be opening it up wide as other eligibility dates become available."
With the additional 80,000 people eligible as of Saturday, Marentette says there will however be one category of people that won't be able to get a second shot yet.
"We want to reiterate that students and youth 12-17 years of age are not eligible for this shortened dose," she says. "They have to still wait at this time and their period is eight weeks."
Marentette asks people to be patient when trying to book an appointment through the wevax.ca website.
"Regarding the crashing of our website, that could occur and has occurred but we've always been able to get it up and running," says explains. "You don't have to be there right at 8 a.m. but eligibility is opening and we do want people to book, we always hope for the best but a possibility of a crash has become a little bit of our reality."