After seeing a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in mid-July that marked the beginning of the fourth wave of the pandemic in Interior Health, officials said there’s good news as vaccine uptick continues.
“We are starting to bend our curve downwards for this fourth wave, and we are now seeing a slight decrease in the Interior Health region,” interim chief medical health officer Dr. Sue Pollock told Interior Health board members during a virtual meeting Wednesday night.
However, the latest data released still showed some surprising numbers.
Within the Interior Health region, aside from youth, the least-vaccinated age group is not those in their 20s, but those in their 30s, where nearly one in four people remain completely unvaccinated.
As the health authority starts rolling out a third shot for some seniors in long-term care, approximately seven per cent of people over the age of 80 haven’t received any doses of the vaccine.
However, Pollock noted that in the last week and a half, the health authority has declared several outbreaks over at long-term care homes.
According to the latest data, Revelstoke has the highest vaccination rate in the health region, with 82 per cent of people double-dosed.
Enderby still ranks the lowest, with only 62 per cent of those eligible receiving both shots.
“We do have work to do in order to continue with our progress to push our immunization rates up into that 90 per cent and above range,” said Karen Bloemink, Interior Health’s vice-president of pandemic response.
In order to hit the 90 per cent target rate, Interior Health estimates that approximately another 50,000 people still need to receive their first shot, and nearly 100,000 people still need to receive their second shot.
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