Hamilton asks province to add more ‘hot spots’ to COVID-19 vaccination booking tool

The city's medical officer of health hopes the Ontario government will soon upload additional Hamilton hot spots" to the provincial COVID-19 vaccination booking tool amid a vicious third wave of the pandemic driven by variants.

Hamilton is one of 13 public health units the province has identified as having hot-spot postal codes where people 50 and over are prioritized for vaccinations.

They include L9C on the west Mountain and L8W on the east Mountain.

But Dr. Elizabeth Richardson says the city has asked the province to add three postal codes a more recent local analysis flagged as hot spots.

Those are almost entirely within those higher-risk categories," Richardson told councillors in a COVID-19 update Wednesday.

They are the following postal codes:

• L8N, which includes downtown east of James Street and the Stinson neighbourhood to the Mountain brow;

• L8L, which covers the North End, Beasley, Landsdale, Keith, Stipley and Crown Point West;

• L9K, which includes part of the west Mountain and Ancaster, including Meadowlands.

The city has asked the Ontario government to add the three areas in addition to the two the province identified to the booking tool, Richardson said.

But when that might happen isn't clear, she said, adding within the five areas, 20,000 more people will be eligible for vaccinations.

The provincial analysis and that of the city were based on different criteria at different times during the pandemic, Richardson said.

The province's hot spots were based on a late-January snapshot that considered Wave 1 and 2 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, as well as racialized and marginalized communities.

The city's epidemiologist analyzed data in March that included some of the same markers, but also the percentage of positivity in tests and parts of Hamilton where tests were not being conducted, suggesting an access issue around care," Richardson noted.

The earlier provincial analysis highlighted an older demographic that has since been addressed through vaccinations, she said.

The city's hot spots, however, focus more on where's the transmission occurring" and the emerging pattern of transmission, hospitalizations and deaths among younger age groups.

Ours is more reflective of where things are happening now, and where we want to target vaccination at this point."

Richardson also offered councillors good news" on Hamilton's vaccine supply, which has been marred by delivery delays.

Over the weekend, 4,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine expected March 22 arrived. Moreover, this week, the province supplied another 900 doses.

That's on top of the regular Pfizer shipments of roughly 14,000 doses and about 5,000 AstraZeneca doses provided through the city's primary-care partners, Richardson said.

So we're in a good spot that way."

Starting April 19, paramedics will also start delivering vaccines to people who are homebound.

But ongoing outbreaks and rising cases, with about 50 per cent attributed to deadlier and more transmissible variants, still make this stage of the pandemic alarming, Richardson advised.

It's a very sombre time in this pandemic."

Increasingly, younger people are winding up in hospital, putting pressure on intensive care units, Richardson said.

It's no time to let up on measures to control the virus, said Paul Johnson, who leads the city's pandemic response.

This crisis of the pandemic is still very much with us."

Hamilton has seen a great turning of the tide" in long-term-care and retirement homes, which is wonderful, wonderful news," he said.

But to suggest that this is something that is a minor annoyance on the side while we continue with vaccine is just not true."

Anticipating another provincial stay-at-home order Wednesday afternoon, Johnson said further restrictions would be tough" for certain parts of the community and local businesses.

But in January, such a measure was effective, he told councillors. It drove our numbers down."

Coun. Nrinder Nann said she noticed many people not wearing masks in very tight scenarios" at parks and playgrounds over the weekend.

It's unfortunate when folks don't wear masks at the playground structures."

Johnson said public health's direction continues to be for people to wear masks - inside or outside - when they expect to be within two metres of others.

People should go outside to get exercise, he said.

But we need to do this safely, and the safety comes with keeping our distance."

Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com