Nearly 4,000 Peterborough area residents received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine over the last four days.
On Thursday, 81,390 residents had received their first dose or roughly 63 per cent of the adult population.
That number jumped to 85,166 residents or close to 70 per cent by end of day Sunday, Peterborough Public Health reported.
“Vaccines are the ticket out of this pandemic and Canadians know it and are getting on-board,” said Andy Mitchell, local health board chair and mayor of Selwyn Township.
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“We have some work to do, but we’re doing really, really well!” medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra added.
The health unit is also reporting that more than 12,000 local residents are fully vaccinated after receiving their second doses.
24 per cent of Peterborough area youths 12-17 years of age have received a first dose.
“We estimate that we have more than 36,000 adults living in the Peterborough area, over the age of 18, that still need their first dose and we have about 6,000 adolescents aged 12-17 that are still not vaccinated yet,” Dr. Salvaterra added.
The health unit is also reporting it has 9,000 appointments available in June for adults for their first or second doses and there are 2,500 youth-specific appointments for clinics June 15-17.
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Dr. Salvaterra also told reporters on her weekly virtual media conference on Monday that the provincial booking system line was overwhelmed on Monday and advised local residents to wait a day or two ‘so you won’t be disappointed.’
Peterborough Public Health is receiving a little more than 8,000 doses of Pfizer each week in June.
“We may see that decline a bit but it will stay close to that,” Dr. Salvaterra added. “We are seeing the Moderna allocations increase as more Moderna arrives. I can’t predict what they will be, but I wouldn’t be surprised that we might get late notice that we’re getting some and we try and use those up as quickly as we can.”
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Dr. Salvaterra noted that supply isn’t meeting demand locally.
“Especially now with second doses becoming available and the concern about this delta variant and the data from the U.K. that only one dose gives you 33 per cent protection against the variant. That’s very concerning. We are in a race against time against the delta variant and that should increase demand for those second doses. People are keen to receive them and that will outstrip our supply,” she said.
“We’ve also reopened our standby list to avoid wasting any vaccines at our clinics. You have to be able to get to the Evinrude Centre within 30 minutes of our calling to qualify for end-of-day doses,” Dr. Salvaterra added.
That list can be found on the homepage of the health unit’s website at peterboroughpublichealth.ca.
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