KITCHENER -- Health officials in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph say people in priority groups can now pre-register for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Officials say the pre-registration will allow them to contact members of those priority groups and help them book an appointment for their vaccine once they're available.

Priority groups include:

  • Adults over the age of 80
  • Adults members of Indigenous communities
  • Long-term care or retirement home staff
  • Essential support staff in long-term care or retirement homes
  • Essential caregivers in long-term care or retirement homes
  • Adults receiving chronic home care
  • Health-care workers in hospitals and COVID-19 response roles
  • Medical first responders
  • Health-care workers serving specialized and general populations
  • Health-care workers in congregate settings
  • Health-care workers for Indigenous populations
  • Laboratory services
  • Non-acute, rehabilitation and therapy

People in the above groups need to live in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph to be eligible.

“Vaccinating people as quickly as possible against COVID-19 is public health’s top priority,” said Dr. Nicola Mercer, medical officer of health, in a news release. “The pre-registration is a positive step forward as our vaccine supply and our administration capacity expand to meet our goal of vaccinating at least 75 per cent of our region by August.”

Dr. Mercer said 10,000 people have already registered. The registration system started beta testing on Thursday.

Registration is available online.

Wellington County Library branches can help anyone with pre-registering. Residents will need their contact information, a cell phone number, email address, health card number and position and role for occupation-based priority groups.

"We will open up our clinics based on vaccine supply," Dr. Mercer said. "An email or a text message will be sent to the individual who has pre-registered inviting them to book with us with a special code."

Six Nations of the Grand River also launched a pre-registration site on Tuesday afternoon. Officials said pre-registering will help them determine how many doses of the vaccine are needed. Registration is available here.

Ontario's 34 public health units are responsible for rolling out their own COVID-19 immunization plans.

Waterloo Region's vaccine task force issued an update Monday, saying the province is working on a central online booking system and pre-registration system. It's not yet available in Waterloo Region.

The task force is focusing on giving first doses to remaining long-term care staff and essential caregivers, health-care workers, medical first responders and community health-care workers.

It's working closely with family doctors in the region to identify patients who are 80 and older. Vaccination of that group is expected to start early next month.

With reporting by CTV News Kitchener's Nicole Lampa