THUNDER BAY - While it is impossible to know the true number of COVID-19 infections in the district due to a lack of testing, data from the Thunder Bay District Health Unit shows the case count has plateaued but it is not declining.
And with vaccine appointments also dropping, the health unit is now making it easier for anyone to get the shot by offering walk-in appointments at its vaccine clinic at the CLE Coliseum.
“Our numbers in terms of appointments are much less and we are now opening it up to anyone who is eligible for a vaccine to come in and get one,” said Dr. Janet DeMille, medical officer of health with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
“We have found it makes it easy for people to quickly make the decision and come by and get that vaccine and we can get them in and out fairly quickly, so we wanted to bring that back for people.”
According to the Thunder Bay District Health Unit website, 91.2 per cent of the district population over the age of 12 has received at least one dose, while 88.4 per cent has received two doses as of Jan. 29, 2022.
In terms of the population aged five years and up, 88.6 per cent has received one dose and 82.9 per cent have received two doses.
Booster shots are largely available to anyone over the age of 18 and DeMille said approximately 57 per cent of the population has received their third dose.
“That number goes up every day. We would like to see that number go up even further,” she said. “We do know those over the age of 50 have a much higher rate of booster coverage, which is really important, because age is one of the risk factors for severe illness for COVID.”
DeMille added that the health unit has already been working with local school boards to offer vaccination clinics in schools to children of consenting parents and there are plans for more.
“We are also looking at other targeted opportunities for vaccines similar to what we have done in the past and work with partners and set up clinics in certain areas where they may have trouble accessing the vaccine,” she said.
The health unit is continuing to encourage everyone who is eligible to get the vaccine, as it helps reduce the spread of COVID-19 and lowers the risk of severe illness and hospitalization.
DeMille said it is important for youth between the ages of five and 11-years-old to get immunized as well, because children under the age of five cannot get the vaccine and often interact with children in the above age group.
Provincial data has also shown that children under the age of five are showing higher rates of hospitalizations, which is not uncommon with a respiratory virus because young children can be more vulnerable.
There are no plans to scale back vaccination clinics at this time and DeMille said the goal remains to meet the demand and support anyone seeking access to the vaccine.
“We are going to allocate resources to do other groups or other target populations to make sure we are bringing the vaccine to them so that everybody who chooses to get vaccinated has access,” she said.
The latest push to get more people vaccinated comes as the surge from the Omicron variant appears to have plateaued in the province, including the Thunder Bay District.
Indicators, such as the number of outbreaks, confirmed cases, and wastewater surveillance shows that the surge likely peaked in mid to late January.
“But we have remained fairly stable in numbers since that time,” DeMille said. “Even though we see a bit of a drop, it doesn’t seem to be a sustained drop. It doesn’t feel like we are fully into recovering in this current surge. We are not at the peak we were once at, but we are still experiencing outbreaks and we are seeing how this is manifesting in the hospitals.”
There are currently 287 confirmed active cases in the district, but due to limitations in testing, DeMille said the actual number is likely four to five times higher.
As of Wednesday, there were 51 people in hospital with COVID-19 and eight in the intensive care unit.
“That is certainly concerning to see,” DeMille said. “The trend across the province is for the numbers to be declining so I am hoping we will start to see that in the near future.”
And with the province easing more restrictions earlier this week, there are also concerns that there could be further community spread resulting from more people interacting with one another.
“It is going to put people into closer contact with one another, so the virus could spread more,” DeMille said.
“I was wondering if the reopening of schools is why we maintained a plateau rather than declining. Schools have a lot of measures to reduce the spread and it is a relatively safe place for children to be but there can be spread.”
Walk-in vaccine appointments are available at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit vaccine clinic in the CLE Coliseum starting on Feb. 3 and now includes booster doses for anyone over the age of 18 and second doses for those between the ages of five and 11-years-old.
Walk-in appointments are available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
