30,000 3rd doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Waterloo Region over past week

COVID-19 vaccination efforts continue to pick up stream in Waterloo Region as the woman who is heading up the vaccination effort says there has been a substantial increase in third-dose vaccination over the past week.

“We have administered 85,598 third doses here in Waterloo Region,” Vickie Murray told reporters on Friday morning. “That is 30,000 more doses than we had done last week.”

While that number has skyrocketed, the number of those aged five to 11 getting a first dose has slowed.

“At end of day yesterday, we had administered 19,053 doses to children aged five to 11 years old,” Murray said. “And that is 40 per cent of our regional five- to 11-year-old population.”

That number is up five percentage points in a week, down from a rise of seven percentage points over the previous seven days.

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That is still a significant portion of that part of the population being vaccinated and family doctors and pharmacies continue to play a large role in making it happen.

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“Monday, primary care and pharmacy had record vaccination days,” she said.

“Both primary care and pharmacy beat your previous top day vaccination total by nearly 25 per cent.”

Overall, there were 7,857 vaccinations done in the area, with 4,405 being done by pharmacies and 1,210 being done by family doctors.

Those numbers should continue to pick up steam as the region continues to add more and more appointments at its clinics.

“Yesterday, we added about 10,000 appointments to Boardwalk and we expect to add another approximately 12,000 appointments to Pinebush today,” Murray said.

One issue that the region is working to combat is the number of no-shows it has for appointments. Murray says there are about 100 per day at the Pinebush Clinic in Cambridge, which is the region’s largest.

She says it is understandable when people take an earlier option at a pharmacy or doctor’s office but they should still cancel so someone else can fill the slot.

“We want to make sure that clinic is running at peak capacity all the time,” she said

“And so those cancelled appointments would be nice to make them available for someone who’s been waiting to get one.”

The region also recognizes that there is a flaw in the cancellation system so in an effort to make it easier to cancel, it is offering people the opportunity to send an email to PHECOVIDIMMS@regionofwaterloo.ca to cancel the appointment.