The Ontario government says it has cut the number of people fully vaccinated from COVID-19 in half after officials “misinterpreted” the total vaccinations completed category.
In an email on Thursday morning, just before the day’s coronavirus data was released, the Ministry of Health explained the change that was about to appear on its COVID-19 vaccine website.
“Rather than provide data on the number of people who have been fully vaccinated … officials inadvertently provided data on the number of doses administered to achieve full vaccination,” a spokesperson for the government wrote.
The government said as a result of misinterpretation, “the number of people who have been fully vaccinated is half of what is currently listed.”
Currently Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the only vaccines approved in Canada at this time, both require two shots. The second “booster” shot for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s full efficacy can be administered 21 days to 42 days after the first shot. Moderna’s second dose is administered after 28 days.
On Wednesday, the government had reported 96,469 total vaccinations which is always as of 8 p.m. the day before. On Thursday, the government indicated that number is now actually 55,286.
The category description has been amended to “people fully vaccinated” from the previous “total vaccinations completed.”
Vaccinations for Ontarians began in mid to end of December, and vaccination data began being recorded on the government website in January.