Waterloo Region closing in on 75 per cent of population fully vaccinated

KITCHENER -

Waterloo Region is slowly getting closer towards their COVID-19 vaccination immunization goal.

As of Saturday, Public Health reported that just 10,742 residents need to get their second shot in order to reach the 75 per cent target of fully vaccinated residents.

However, the update in vaccines has dropped from a high of 12,818 doses administered on July 10, to fewer than 2,800 shots in arms on Saturday.

“We continue to remain at risk for resurgence of Delta,” said Dr. Rabia Bana, Associate Medical Officer of Health for the region. “We need to aim for a 90 per cent or greater rate of vaccination coverage.”

Public health has turned to transportation services to deliver doses, with some Grand River Transit busses transformed into mobile vaccination clinics.

The vaccination decline has been mirrored across the province, with nearly 280,000 doses given at the end of June, to just 61,000 administered on Saturday.

However, Quebec’s vaccination bookings doubled, according to the provincial health minister, after Premier Francois Legault announced a vaccine passport requirement.

While the Ford government says it won’t implement the vaccine passport in Ontario, one member of the provincial task force says the idea shouldn’t be dismissed.

“We’ve seen France do the same, New York City’s doing the same, and a growing number of jurisdictions doing that as cases continue to climb,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch. “I think it’s very reasonable to be open-minded to the idea that this is a potential mechanism to keep the economy going, keep people doing things they want to be doing, while ensuring a safer indoor environment.”

Another sign of the slowing pace, Vaccine Hunters Canada announced this week that the volunteer group is ramping down operations on social media.