Ontario will start offering third COVID-19 shots to vulnerable people as it remains in Step 3 for the time being.
The province will begin offering the 'booster' third doses to select populations including transplant recipients, those being actively treated for hematological cancers, and people who take specific medications called anti-CD20 agents.
The groups can receive a third dose at least eight weeks after their second shot.
Long-term care residents, First Nations elder care lodges and "higher-risk" retirement homes will also be offered the third dose, as long as it has been a minimum of five months after their last shot.
The province will also require health and education workers to be fully immunized or submit regular COVID-19 tests.
Ontario is not mandating vaccines for workers in high-risk settings.
Critics say the Ford government's new policies won't do enough to fight a rising Delta variant fourth wave.
The province also announced today that those who are turning 12 this year (born on or before Dec. 31, 2009) are now also able and eligible receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.