With a pair of COVID-19 vaccine milestones in the rear-view mirror, public health officials in the Sarnia area are expecting to see a drop in demand soon.
With a pair of COVID-19 vaccine milestones in the rear-view mirror, public health officials in the Sarnia area are expecting to see a drop in demand soon.
The region recently surpassed the 250,000-dose threshold and, this week, Lambton public health marked the one-year anniversary of the first Sarnia-Lambton resident receiving their initial shot.
But as the calendar flips to February, Lambton’s medical officer of health said they’re expecting demand to wane unless new measures are introduced by the province, such as proof of vaccination requiring three doses.
“Then we might start to see an uptick in demand,” Dr. Sudit Ranade said. “But right now, we’re projecting a steady demand through the end of the month and then lower demand in February and adjusting accordingly.”
A total of 259,181 doses were administered to residents as of Friday via the health unit, doctors’ offices, family health teams, pharmacies and mobile clinics. Seventy-eight per cent of the five-plus population was fully immunized and 44 per cent had three doses.
But another resident has died due to the disease. A health unit spokesperson said a long-term care home resident in their 90s died earlier this week.
The deaths of 107 residents have been attributed to the virus while 86 patients, including some people who lived elsewhere, have died in local hospital.
Bluewater Health reported it was treating 41 COVID-positive patients Friday, with five in intensive care. Thirty were vaccinated and 11 were partially or unvaccinated.
The vaccination status of the deceased at home or in hospital has not been made available due to privacy concerns, officials have said.
The health unit was also overseeing 13 active outbreaks. They include long-term care and retirement homes, congregate settings – including the city’s jail – a hospital in-patient rehabilitation unit, and businesses.
Although there are a higher number of people linked to infected outbreaks compared to previous waves, symptoms and burden of disease are lower this time, Ranade said.
“Although we have had some deaths, and they are very unfortunate, the percentage or the rate of that is much lower than we would have had in an unvaccinated population,” he said. “That’s really, really important.”
Nintey-six new local COVID-19 cases were confirmed Friday by the health unit, but Ranade has repeatedly cautioned the daily figures are a substantial underestimate due to the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant and recent changes to testing criteria.
“There’s still lots of circulating disease out there and it’s going to come and go in these waves,” he said. “The waves are going to be harder to pick up on because we’re not going to have all the testing that we used to have.”
Of the 8,678 reported to date, 426 were active and 8,145 were resolved.