Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens has created an online waitlist for cross-border vaccinations.
Dilkens has been pushing upper levels of government to allow residents to tap into a surplus of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. since early May.
He says the waitlist will collect contact information in order to react quickly if the federal government permits cross-border vaccinations.
Dilkens tells CTV Windsor that thousands of people have signed up since the site launched Friday.
"In the first 24-hours we had more than 2,000 people sign up to be considered for the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in Michigan," he said Sunday. "That's good, I haven't checked recently, but I'm sure that number will continue to grow exponentially because the interest is here in our community."
He says the federal government is allowing residents from Alberta to travel into Montana to be vaccinated this week.
"So when they say entry to the U.S. is not permitted locally, well, we know that's not a national policy," he says. "I think anyone would be foolish to think that getting a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic is not an essential medical treatment; of course it is."
Only five per cent of Canadians have received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine compared to 55 per cent of Americans, according to Dilkens.
"Although we're doing really well with the first shots, we're not there with the second shots. It's going to be several more months before this plays out," he says. "I want to help get over this hump sooner rather than later so that we can all get together and enjoy our summer, get the businesses back open and reunite families on both sides of the border."
In his latest attempt, Dilkens proposed residents make their way to the midway point of the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel to be vaccinated and remain on the Canadian side to avoid a 14-quarantine.
Dilkens says the waitlist is for those who are waiting on their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
Officials in Michigan have expressed interest in providing doses of the vaccine that have been going to waste.
Residents can sign up for the wait list via, www.mayordrewdilkens.ca/us-vaccines/.
— wiith files from CTV Windsor's Bob Bellacicco.