Hamilton’s medical officer of health says the city intentionally revealed what brand of COVID-19 vaccine would be used at a three-day clinic last weekend in the hopes of avoiding wasted appointments due to a vaccine refusal.
Dr. Elizabeth Richardson says the city is monitoring to see if the scheme should be used again after revealing the three-day clinic at the West End Urgent Care Centre on Main Street West was only for Moderna shots.
“We did change our tactics a little bit at the end of last week, which you may have noticed, and announced which vaccine it was that was being used in one of our clinics that was run over the weekend by our primary care colleagues,” Richardson said on Tuesday.
The announcement was made after the MOH told councillors in a meeting last week that some residents were “choosing between vaccines” at some clinics and revealed that there were people passing up the Moderna shot.
“If they wanted to look at something different than they could not look into that and look for a different locale,” Richardson said of the Victoria Day long-weekend clinic.
“But people who were coming out to the clinic would be aware of what it was. And then we wouldn’t end up with vaccine appointments where no vaccine was ending up in somebody’s arm.”
Over 6,400 aged 12 through 17 have booked COVID-19 vaccines.
Richardson says close to 6,400 youth between the ages of 12 and 17 have taken up the province on an appointment for a vaccine after eligible shots were opened up to the age group this week.
As of Tuesday, about 1,000 youth with high-risk medical conditions had already received their first shot, according to public health.
“There was already an exemption in place that if kids had those same kinds of high-risk medical conditions, they could be vaccinated in those circumstances,” said Richardson.
The city estimates there are about 37,000 youth between 12 and 17 now eligible for a vaccination.
Close to 2,000 in Hamilton eligible for second AstraZeneca shot
Public health estimates some 1,900 individuals aged 60 to 64 are now eligible to receive their second shot of the AstraZeneca shot, provided they received the first between the period of March 10-19.
“Anybody who is part of that group that was vaccinated that week can reach out to their primary care provider, the person who gave them their first dose of AstraZeneca,” said Richardson.
On Wednesday, the city revealed a walk-in clinic on Saturday and Sunday for those who are eligible at the West End Clinic on Main Street West.
Though the recommended interval between shots is at least 12 weeks, the second injection is being offered to that group after 10 weeks in order to make use of 45,000 doses set to expire in roughly a week.
Another 10,000 doses of AstraZeneca are due to expire next month.
Over 290,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Hamilton
As of Tuesday, 290,316 vaccine doses have been given out in Hamilton through clinics, primary care physicians and pharmacies, according to the city.
The Hamilton Health Sciences clinic has administered the most, 90,739, while the St. Joe’s clinic has handed out 64,542 shots.
Over 8.3 million vaccine doses have been administered across Ontario, while Ottawa says over 17 million Canadians have received at least one shot as of late last week.
Hamilton reports 53 new COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths
Hamilton reported 53 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and a pair of virus-related deaths.
The city says one of the deceased was a person in their 30s, the other in their 50s. There have now been 380 deaths tied to COVID-19 in Hamilton since the pandemic began.
The city’s active cases dropped day-over-day by 45 to check in at 751 as of May 26. Public health data reveals that over 73 per cent of the newest cases are in people under 50 while over 25 per cent are among youth under 19.
On Tuesday, the city revealed two new workplace outbreaks and closed two others.
The new surges include two workers at Karma Candy Inc. in Central Hamilton and three staffers at the Pizza Pizza on Dundurn Street in the west end.
Closed outbreaks include Kromet International on Milburn Road and Mohawk Medbuy on the West Mountain.
The largest of the two was Kromet, which had nine staff cases in an outbreak that lasted 18 days.
As of Wednesday, the city has 115 total cases among 17 active workplace outbreaks. The city has 41 total outbreaks involving over 460 cases.
Hamilton’s reproductive number is still at 1.03 as of Wednesday — signifying that the average number of people an infected person is passing COVID-19 on to.
The city’s seven-day moving average of cases was at 94, last reported on May 24.
The percentage of Hamilton tests returning from Ontario labs as positive for COVID-19 is 8.4 per cent, above the province’s last reported daily number, 5.3 per cent, on May 26.
Over 70 per cent of the city’s new cases in the past seven days have involved a variant of concern.
There are 84 patients with COVID-19 in Hamilton hospitals as of May 26. Hamilton Health Sciences says they have 47 patients, with 22 in intensive care units (ICU) and St. Joe’s 37 patients, with also 24 in an ICU.
St. Joe’s says its ICU occupancy rate is now at 122 per cent as of Wednesday, while HHS facilities are at 113 per cent.