Hamilton is set to drop the minimum age for a COVID-19 vaccination starting Monday as it continues with its Phase 1 plan, according to the city’s emergency operations centre director.
Paul Johnson says residents 80-plus can get in line for a shot at one of seven locations in the week ahead at either the fixed sites at St. Joe’s and Hamilton Health Sciences or one of five pop-up mobile clinics.
“Obviously, opening it up to larger populations is a good thing,” Johnson told Global News.
“In the middle of April we expect that to drop to the 75 range, but the flexibility is there always to speed up a little bit depending on communities.”
The move coincides with the launch of Ontario’s online vaccine booking tool on March 15.
Close to 48,000 people have had vaccines does as of Monday, with over 31,000 getting shots through the Hamilton Health Science (HHS) fixed site, around 3,500 through the St. Joe’s site and close to 13,000 with the mobile clinic.
Over 944,000 people have received shots across Ontario. Close 276,000 have been fully vaccinated, according to the Ministry of Health.
The first of Hamilton’s mass injection sites at the First Ontario Centre is likely to open in the next two weeks just ahead of the province’s Phase 2 rollout in April, which has 113 large clinics in 26 of 34 public health units, expected to roll out this month.
The site at Rosedale Arena will follow in the early part of April, according to Johnson.
“That’s just so we can get the staff trained and get everything on site so that it’s a seamless process as people begin to the book in,” Johnson said.
The city’s largest site at present is the West 5th clinic at St. Joseph’s Health Care Hamilton, which has been vaccinating hundreds a day but is expected to hit 2,000 a day in the near future.
Queen’s Park is expecting to administer 80 per cent of all provincial vaccinations through mass clinics during phases 2 and 3 of its plan.
Niagara, Hamilton and Halton will receive close to a million additional doses of vaccines in the next phase to target known hot spots with high rates of death.
Johnson says the mobilization and redeployment of city workers will ramp up in the weeks ahead to prepare for the larger volumes of vaccinations set for next month.
“We’re working with our health-care partners finding ways to staff these while dealing with outbreaks also contact tracing and case management,” said Johnson.
Hamilton reported 98 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and two more deaths.
Public health says the deceased were a person over 80 and another in their 70s. One death is tied to the outbreak at Hamilton General Hospital’s Unit 5 West, which has now had a pair of deaths in a surge that started on Feb. 26.
The city has had 289 virus-related deaths since the pandemic began, with just over 200 of the deceased over 80 years old.
There were no new outbreaks reported on Tuesday. The latest was reported on Monday night at St. Joe’s Healthcare West 5th campus, involving four staff members.
An outbreak was declared over on Monday at St. Matthew’s Children Centre on Barton Street East. The surge lasted 14 days and involved four cases among two patrons and two staffers.
Hamilton has reported more than 300 cases at the 29 facilities currently in outbreak, which includes eight seniors homes, six shelters, six schools and two hospitals.
There were no new coronavirus variant cases reported on Tuesday. There are 125 cases in the city as of March 8 with only four identified from the B.1.1.7 variant that first emerged in the U.K.
There are no confirmed cases for any of the other subtypes of the coronavirus.
Active cases are up day over day by 33 to 409 as of March 8.
Public health says 44 per cent (216) of the city’s 491 new cases in the last 10 days are from people under the age of 29.
The city’s weekly rate of new cases per 100,000 population is at 61 as of March 9.
Halton reports 70 new COVID-19 cases, 14 new variant cases
Halton Region reported 70 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with active cases up day over day by 31 to 305 as of March 9.
The region has had 9,850 total cases since the pandemic began.
Halton has 16 active outbreaks that include 68 cases from two long-term care homes and 86 cases from two retirement homes.
Public health saw variant cases go up by 14 day over day to 152 as of March 8, with 21 confirmed.
The region reported no new deaths on Tuesday. Halton has had 198 virus-related deaths since the pandemic began.
Halton’s seven-day rolling case average is at 43.9 as of Tuesday.
So far, public health has administered 33,255 COVID-19 vaccines as of Thursday. Close to 10,000 doses have been given out by mobile teams and just over 23,000 from fixed clinics as of March 4.
Niagara reports 27 new COVID-19 cases, new outbreak at retirement home in Grimsby
Niagara public health reported 20 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and added a new outbreak at a seniors’ home in Grimsby.
The new surge is at the Maplecrest Village home on Main Street East.
Public health says it’s dealing with 22 active outbreaks with four at three retirement homes and a long-term care home.
The region added 12 new variant cases on Tuesday with 76 confirmed total cases in the region, with four identified as the B.1.1.7 variant.
There are no confirmed cases for any of the other subtypes of the coronavirus.
Active cases went up on Monday for the fifth day in a row to 215 as of March 9. The region has had 8,791 cases and 369 deaths since the pandemic began.
Public health has administered close to 12,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in Niagara as of March 8.
Haldimand Norfolk reports four new COVID-19 cases
Haldimand Norfolk reported four new coronavirus cases on Tuesday and saw active cases increase for the second day in a row to 40 as of Mar. 9.
Both counties have accounted for 1,468 total COVID-19 cases amid the pandemic and 39 deaths.
The health unit is dealing with just one outbreak at a health-care facility involving one staff case, at the Cedar Crossing retirement home in Simcoe.
A pair of farms in the county are also in outbreaks — EZ Grow Farms in Frogmore and Ryder Farms Inc. in Delhi.
Close to 9,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in both counties as of Mar. 9, with about 1,600 people having completed their series of shots.
Brant County reports 9 new COVID-19 cases
The Brant County Health Unit reported nine new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with active cases increasing by one day over day. The region has 42 active cases as of March 8.
Public health is managing six outbreaks in the community at a nursing home, LTCH, three schools and two workplaces.
The outbreak at St. Peter Elementary is the largest with eight total cases among students.
The county has had 1,537 coronavirus cases and 12 virus-related deaths since the pandemic began last March.
The region added two more variant cases on Tuesday. The county now has seven variant cases with none of the cases having their lineage classified.
Public health says more than 11,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Brant County with over 2,500 people having completed their vaccinations as of March 8.
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