COVID-19: Vaccine demand easing in Huron-Perth; hospital services slowly resuming

The public health unit in Huron and Perth counties is preparing to scale back its COVID-19 vaccination clinics next month.

The region’s medical officer of health, Dr. Miriam Klassen, told reporters about the decision during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

“We’re not seeing a lot of new people start a vaccine series,” she said.

Huron Perth public health noted a drop in demand for the jabs in January. Klassen said many factors could be contributing, but officials don’t believe access to clinics has been a problem.

“We have worked really hard with lots of wonderful partners to ensure that people have access,” she said. “There’s been a lot of outreach to ensure everybody who wants a vaccine can have one.”

Instead, Klassen suggests the region’s strong vaccination rates are more telling.

Nearly 85 per cent of Huron-Perth residents older than five have at least one dose while 81 per cent are fully vaccinated, health unit figures show.

Slightly more than 60 per cent of adults 19 and older have received a booster, including more than 93 per cent of residents 70-plus.

Among Huron-Perth youth between the ages of five and 11, the slowest demographic to become eligible for vaccinations, 48 ​​per cent have received one dose and 28 per cent are fully vaccinated.

“Thank you, Huron-Perth, for making it a priority to get vaccinated,” Klassen said. “By doing that, you have really helped interrupt chains of transmission. You have helped to keep hospitalizations manageable. You have helped to save lives.”

Huron Perth public health has recently been organizing more clinics in the region’s smaller communities. Those efforts will continue through March, Klassen said.

Afterwards, the health unit won’t be scrapping their vaccination clinics entirely. Shots will also continue to be available through pharmacies and primary-care providers.

“We are going to continue to promote vaccination going forward, and we are going to make sure everybody is very informed if there’s a new variant … or newer vaccines,” Klassen said. “We know that this virus isn’t going away. It’s going to be with us for a while and so I continue to encourage everyone that can be vaccinated. It’s the best way to develop immunity without risking severe outcomes from infection.”

Huron-Perth reported 15 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in high-risk settings on Wednesday. Although Ontario relaxed another chunk of public-health measures this week, Klassen said the virus is still circulating “at pretty high levels” and warned that health-care capacity still hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic’s Omicron wave.

“Hospitals are working to ramp surgeries back up and work to clear backlogs, but there are still high staff absenteeism rates across the health-care sector,” she said. “We’re still not back to controlled transmission.”

Andrew Williams, chief executive of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, confirmed Wednesday that his hospital group – which includes Stratford, St. Marys, Clinton and Seaforth – has recently been allowed to increase service levels to about 70 per cent of its pre-pandemic volume .

About 40 hospital workers were off the job Wednesday due to COVID.

“We’re being cautious,” Williams said. “We’re excited like everybody is to see the measures being eased, but we need to be responsible and continue to focus on putting safety first.”

Four people from Huron-Perth were in hospital Wednesday due to COVID-19 or a related complication.

Zero outbreaks were reported in the region Wednesday.

Across the rest of the province, Ontario reported Wednesday that 847 people were in hospital because of COVID-19, down from 1,106 a week ago.

There were 273 people in intensive care due to COVID-related illness, compared to 312 one week ago.

Twenty-seven additional COVID-19 deaths were added to the total in Ontario, including three people who died more than a month ago, bringing the total number of lives lost to 12,478.

-With files from Postmedia news and The Canadian Press

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