Waterloo Region says that more than 40 per cent of residents over the age of 18 in the area have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The region’s COVID-19 distribution task force says 192,817 area residents are fully vaccinated, 21,478 more than it reported on Friday.
This pushes the percentage of adults fully vaccinated to 41.57, a number which falls to 33.42 when taking into account the entire population.
“We’re making great progress in our vaccine rollout and continue to vaccinate as many people as we can as quickly as possible,” Regional Chair Karen Redman stated.
“The more our community continues to work together by rolling up their sleeves to get vaccinated and follow public health measures, the closer we are to cautiously moving forward in our recovery and allowing more businesses to safely reopen.”
The goal is to see at least 75 per cent of the population immunized, which in theory would lead to herd immunity.
The region says it surpassed another marking in the coming days, as soon 80 per cent of area adults will have received at least one jab of a COVID-19 vaccine.
That may take time as the task force’s dashboard sits at 79.41 per cent, and it has increased by less than one per cent over the past week.
When you include all those who are eligible to be vaccinated, that number falls to 78.07 per cent.
However, that number may actually cross the 80 per cent line faster as those between the ages of 12-17 are the fastest growing percentage, according to the dashboard.
A total of 63.48 of that age group has been received one dose of a vaccine, a number which stood at 61.69 a week ago.
“Vaccines are the most effective defense against COVID-19 and the Delta variant,” stated Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Medical Officer of Health.
“The more residents who get vaccinated, the more we build a wall of protection to keep our community safe and healthy.”
As of Monday, there have been 592,661 jabs administered in the region since the first needle went into an arm with the vaccine on Dec. 22.
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