Waterloo Region COVID-19 vaccination rate drops as Public Health tinkers with numbers

As was expected, the percentage numbers of people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 in the area took a major turn on Friday when Waterloo Region updated its dashboard.

The new report indicates that 74.6 per cent of area residents are vaccinated, down about two per cent from Thursday.

That number should start to rebound quickly now that those aged five to 11 are eligible to be vaccinated.

Waterloo Public Health has changed the population number it is using to create these percentages, with that total rising from 588,878 to 605,232. The latter number is the most recent provided by Statistics Canada for people living in the area.

The other major changes that were implemented saw the statistics broken down by year of birth rather than age, as well as including students from outside the region.

This caused all of the older age groups to climb drastically as the region now says more than 95 per cent of those over the age of 70 are fully vaccinated, a rise of more than five per cent in each age category.

Those under the age of 40 have all seen drastic drops as well, particularly the 18-to-29 age category which went from above 95 per cent vaccinated to 78.85 per cent vaccinated.

Global News has reached out to Waterloo Public Health for clarification on how the change from age to year of birth would have caused such a drastic shift.

There is no change to how the rest of the numbers are being recorded as Waterloo Public Health says there have now been 911,044 vaccinations done in the area, up 995 from Thursday’s total.

In addition, 451,492 people have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, up 311 from 24 hours earlier.

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On the flip side of the coin, Waterloo Public Health reported that another 39 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, lifting the total number of COVID-19 cases in the area to 20,608.

This lists the rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases up slightly to 29.7.

Another 30 people have been cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases in the area to 20,082.

It has been more than two weeks since a new COVID-19-related death was reported in the area, leaving the death toll at 305 including two victims this month.

The number of active cases is back up to 219, including 10 people in area hospitals, two of which are in intensive care.

There are now 13 active COVID-19 outbreaks in Waterloo Region after ones were declared at St. Brigid Catholic School in Ayr and Floradale Public School in Elmira as another ended at Glenview Park Secondary School in Cambridge.

Elsewhere, Ontario reported 793 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the second straight day counts have been in the 700s as cases continue to rise week over week. The provincial case total now stands at 610,222.

Of the 793 new cases recorded, the data showed 385 were unvaccinated people, 22 were partially vaccinated people, 323 were fully vaccinated people and for 63 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Friday’s report, 115 cases were recorded in Toronto, 71 in Simcoe-Muskoka, 60 in York Region, 55 in Windsor-Essex, 54 in Peel Region and 41 in Hamilton. All other local public health units reported fewer than 40 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,959 as four more deaths were reported.

–With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues