As of Saturday morning, more than 50 percent of youth aged 16 to 19 years old in Toronto had received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Toronto said a big part of this rollout took place at city-run, partner-run or pop-up clinics across the city, amounting to a total of 62,601 first doses administered.

This milestone has been reached after the province expanded the vaccine to children aged 12 to 17 less than a week ago, on Sunday. The city said about 30 per cent of those in this age group have also received their first dose.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by Health Canada and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization for youth age 12 and older earlier this month.

"Thank you to the families who are coming out to get vaccinated by the thousands to make sure they are protected and their community is protected," said Mayor John Tory in a news release Saturday.

"Getting vaccinated as soon as possible is the right thing to do so that we can bring this pandemic to an end.”

The city has administered 2,092,608 vaccines to those eligible and 739,669 people have booked an appointment at a city-run clinic, as of Friday night.

(With input from agencies)