Flu and COVID-19 vaccines will be available to high-risk groups across Ontario next week and the local health unit is encouraging the public to get their annual shot. The province’s fall immunization program begins the week of Sept. 28 for people considered most at risk, including hospital patients and staff, long-term care and retirement home residents and staff, and people aged 65 and older. Approximately a month later on Oct. 26, free flu and COVID-19 vaccines will be available to the general public through participating pharmacies, public health units, and doctors’ and nurse practitioners’ offices. Locally, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) is preparing with community partners after the region experienced one of its toughest flu seasons in recent years with more than 1,200 cases between Sept. 2025 and May 2026 and nearly 250 people hospitalized. Last respiratory season, the health unit distributed more than 83,000 flu vaccine doses - up 4,000 doses from the year prior. Dr. Mehdi Aloosh, Medical Officer of Health with WECHU, says they are seeing warning signs of the season beginning. “We see early signs of COVID in wastewater surveillance and around us we see a rise of COVID in Michigan, a little bit of activity of flu in Michigan, but we’re preparing for this respiratory season with our partners.” He says the community responded well to last year’s campaign, but he’s encouraging people to continue that momentum. “We don’t expect that level of activity of flu vaccine, but the same message is there. And I can say that our population did a great job and we saw higher vaccination in flu compared to the year before that, which is really good.” Dr. Aloosh says while COVID-19 is no longer at the levels seen earlier in the pandemic, it’s still around and poses a risk. “Based on the evidence that we have, there are still people who are at higher risk, older population, those immunocompromised, those have more risk, they benefit from getting the vaccine. It prevents them from going to hospital, from intubation, those sort of things.” Ontario is also expanding access to RSV protection. Adults aged 75 and older, along with certain higher-risk adults aged 60 to 74, are eligible for RSV vaccines. Starting Oct. 1, eligible newborns and infants can also receive RSV immunization. Health officials are encouraging residents to check their eligibility and get their recommended vaccinations when they become available.
