The three COVID-19 vaccination clinics in the Oxford and Elgin counties region are again welcoming walk-ins from specific prioritized groups.
The three COVID-19 vaccination clinics in the Oxford and Elgin counties region are again welcoming walk-ins from specific prioritized groups.
While most still need to book an appointment to get a dose, walk-ins from pregnant women, anyone still needing a first vaccination and seniors 70 and older wanting a booster are encouraged, Southwestern public health officials.
The walk-ins are permitted from 10 am to 3 pm during regular operating hours, including Saturdays, at the clinic locations at the St. Thomas Memorial Arena, Goff Hall at the Woodstock Reeves Community Complex and the Lions Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre.
Public health officials will be considering an expansion of these walk-in hours to other age groups and populations in the coming weeks.
The ongoing COVID-19 case count in the Oxford and Elgin counties region, continues to decline, public health officials confirmed in a Wednesday update, dropping from 743 to 711 cases.
Despite 54 new cases, there were also 86 recoveries in the region.
The number of hospitalizations was unchanged on Wednesday at 29 patients, including 10 in intensive care.
There have now been 9,897 confirmed cumulative cases and 9,050 total recoveries in the Southwestern public health region since the pandemic began. There have also been 136 COVID-related deaths in the region during the course of the pandemic.
Despite the ongoing drop in active cases, 17 long-term care and retirement homes in the region remained in some degree of outbreak. There were also smaller active outbreaks at the Arches Transitional Bed Program in Woodstock and Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital.
The region’s two largest urban communities – Woodstock and St. Thomas – continued to have the most active cases in the region, with 224 and 195 respectively.
This active case count, however, has become increasingly meaningless during the recent Omicron-driven surge, public health officials have said. With testing and contact-tracing capacity overwhelmed by the growing number of cases – and focused more on high-risk patients and settings – officials across the province have warned that counts are an underestimate of the actual number of active infections.
As of Jan. 24, 86.7 per cent of area residents 12 and older had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 84.7 per cent had been administered two doses. For residents five and older, the local vaccination coverage rates dropped to 82.6 per cent with one dose and 77.6 per cent with two.