Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Ten days has made a major difference on the KFLA region’s COVID-19 outlook.
During his weekly Skype call with local media, KFLA Public Health medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore said the region continues to trend in the right direction.
“We’re in a much better place than we were simply 10 days ago,” said Moore. “If you recall we had cases at 50 per 100,000. Multiple different outbreaks in the community and we’re now heading in a better direction. I just have to thank the community for adhering to the best practices. It is working for us as well as our community embracing immunization. It is such a positive step in us responding to, recovering from this pandemic.”
On May 12 the region had 126 active COVID-19 cases compared to 53 as of today.
“Our rate of infection is now heading to around 18.3 per 100,000 over the last week,” said Moore. “The percentage of tests that are positive is 0.77 which again is heading in the right direction, but sadly we still have three people in hospital, we wish them and their family the very best. To put that in perspective, there are areas in this province with rates of illness that are 10 times what we’re currently experiencing and the percentages of tests that are positive are still 10 times our rate. So leaving KFLA increases your risk, especially to head west towards the Greater Toronto Area, so over the long weekend staying in KFLA remains your safest bet. Stay as best you can within your household to protect yourselves and others. We also want to celebrate that many of you have come forward to be immunized, today in KFLA 53.5 per cent of our adult population has received at least their first dose of vaccine. We have administered 10,000 doses in the last seven days within KFLA and we intend to immunize 10,000 more at minimum every week going forward through the end of May and all of June and if we get any extra supply I want to let the community know that we have the capacity to be able to immunize many more than 10,000 per week, up to 20,000 per week if we get the vaccine.”
Moore once again emphasized that the region will be setting up immunization clinics specifically for students age 12-17 the weeks of June 7 and June 14, with more information on those to soon follow.
In the meantime he recommends visiting www.YGKVAX.com for the latest information containing to which local pharmacies are booking appointments and which vaccine they will be offering. Www.kflaph.ca will also be updated regularly with information on local vaccine clinics.
As of Friday the KFLA region has administered at least one dose of vaccine to over 92 per cent of the population of those 60 and older.
“We know those that have to get admitted to hospital if they get infected with COVID-19 are mainly those that are older in our community,” said Moore. “To have achieved 92.3 per cent of our over 60s getting protected I just think is amazing and I thank everyone for their keen interest in getting protection.”
Speaking to the province’s road map to re-opening released by Premier Doug Ford on Thursday, Moore said the plan appears to be very ‘data driven’.
“I do think the provincial plan is cautious, it is data driven, it is transparent and those are some of the aspects I do like about it,” said Moore. “I am very cautious because we are now dealing with the variants of concern which are a dramatic difference. If we all in Ontario stay at the same level, there’s not going to be an incentive to travel from high risk areas to low risk areas which there have been historically been in Ontario which has always led to infections ceding back into our community and for us having outbreaks.”