A total of 127,886 residents 18 and older, or 75.8 per cent, living within the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPRDHU) have received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
If you factor in youths aged 12 to 17, the percentage of residents with one dose is 74.5 per cent.
Medical officer of health Dr. Natalie Bocking told reporters on her weekly media conference that the first-dose rates are starting to level off.
“We’re seeing small increases in that percentage,” she said.
“We would certainly like to see that number increase as much as possible, but there is no magic number, especially given circulation of variants that spread easier and faster, and that we don’t know what other variants might come in the future.”
But Bocking says second-dose rates are increasing exponentially.
As of Monday, 54,280 residents, or 32.7 per cent of those 18 and older, have received two doses, with 41,827 of them getting the second dose within the last four weeks.
Bocking also noted uptake in youths has been going well locally.
“Among the population 12 to 17 years old, 54.3 per cent having received their first dose,” she said.
“There’s certainly room to improve in those age groups, though.”
In addition to pharmacies, primary health-care providers and pop-up clinics, there are five mass immunization sites within the jurisdiction.
“Those clinics are seeing on any average day, depending on the size of clinic, anywhere from 300 to 800 people go through in a day,” Bocking said.
“You would’ve seen announcements this week about an online standby list. If you have an appointment in a few weeks or no appointment, you can sign up on our list and at the end of the day, if there are extra doses, you’ll receive a phone call with the instructions to be at the clinic within 20 to 30 minutes so we can ensure you get that vaccine.”
On July 1, Peterborough Public Health will open one its mass immunization clinics at the Evinrude Centre to walk-ins that are looking for a first dose of vaccine.
You don’t need to prebook, you can just show up with your health card and proof of residence within the jurisdiction to get vaccinated.
Bocking said the HKPRDHU is “looking at” doing something similar to help drive up first-dose uptake.
“I know a number of neighbouring health units are implementing that and we are actively looking at that also,” she said. “There will be more on that to come by the end of this week or on the weekend.”
As for vaccine shipments, there will continue to be more Moderna than Pfizer within the health unit over the next few weeks.
The health unit recently received 7,200 doses of Moderna while Pfizer shipments have dropped from 9,300 doses/week in June to 3,500 next week and 4,600 the following week.
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