Hamilton ‘lagging’ with lower vaccination rate
Hamilton will not return to grey lockdown or red as forecast at the end of June because the province is doing away with its colour-coded restrictions.
The premier's office confirmed the government is getting rid of the framework with the hope the stay-at-home order ending June 2 will mark the last reopening of the pandemic as more and more of the population is vaccinated.
Nearly 60 per cent of eligible Ontarians have had their first dose, said the province's chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, on Monday.
Coverage in Hamilton is less at nearly 50 per cent despite the city being allotted extra vaccine for hot spot" postal codes - L8W and L9C.
We are lagging a bit with respect to the rest of the province on an overall coverage rate," Michelle Baird, director of public health's epidemiology, wellness and communicable disease control division, told board of health Monday. However, there are certain populations for which we are quite far ahead ... We very much chose to target our approach."
The hope of the premier's office that Ontario is exiting the pandemic is precarious as Williams worries the May long weekend will drive cases to spike back up again.
Long weekends have not been the greatest time for consistency and performance around maintaining public health measures," said Williams. We don't need to have a big surge back up again. We don't need another whole cohort being admitted to our ICUs ... We can go back up there fairly quickly. We do not want that to happen."
Already, warm weather in the last week has seen people bursting out a bit too much into spring too quickly," said Williams, urging Ontarians to have a bit more patience."
Hamilton public health has also raised alarm that mobility levels are increasing despite the stay-at-home order. The rise in movement could threaten the slow downward trend in the COVID numbers.
The city reported 107 new infections Tuesday, however reporting delays have caused the numbers to be under-reported for weeks now.
A more accurate measure is the average daily new cases of 118 as of May 16 and the weekly rate per 100,000 population, which was 138. Active cases are down to 940.
We're making progress," said Williams. But he added COVID numbers are still well above the beginning of the third wave, which started Feb. 17 and peaked in mid-April.
The health-care system is also still strained, with Hamilton's hospitals caring for 105 COVID patients Tuesday. More than half are severely ill, as 58 were in the intensive care unit. No COVID patients from the Greater Toronto Area have been transferred to area hospitals since May 12.
The numbers are still very high and they represent people who are very ill from this disease," Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario's associate medical officer of health, said Monday.
Those hospitalized are younger with the board of health hearing Monday that the majority so far in the third wave were ages 40 to 74, as opposed to 70-plus in the second wave.
The other unknown as the province looks to a final reopening is the emergence of B.1.617 in Ontario - including one confirmed case in Hamilton. It was named a variant of concern last week as it tears through India and has started to spread rapidly through the United Kingdom.
So far we have had no information that the vaccine is not effective," said Williams.
However, he added there are few definites known about the strain at this time.
The vast majority of variant cases in Ontario - and Hamilton - are B.1.17, which originated in the U.K. Hamilton has also had 27 cases of P.1, first found in Brazil, and 11 of B.1.351, first identified in South Africa.
Roughly three-quarters of Hamilton's COVID cases have been variants since April.
Hamilton has 41 ongoing outbreaks with seven new ones declared Monday.
Two staff have tested positive at Lush Cosmetics in Limeridge Mall, restaurant La Luna at 306 King St. W. and at ArcelorMittal Dofasco in the weld construction crew.
Another outbreak at Dofasco at the batch anneal was declared over Monday.
Two of the new outbreaks are in daycares with six cases at Tiny Hoppers Early Learning Centres at Stoney Creek Paramount and two infected at Quality Foundations Childcare in Waterdown.
The other two new outbreaks are in workplaces Q-Air on 32 Keefer Ct., where four workers have tested positive, and at manufacturer Eveley International in Stoney Creek, where three are infected.
Cases increased to eight at Image Honda on Centennial Parkway North, where public health has ordered a partial workplace closure.
Infections went up to 43 at Wellington Place apartments at 125 Wellington St. N. and 50 Cathcart St.
Outbreaks were also declared over Monday at Assured Automotive on Upper James Street, Go Hot Water on Ottawa Street North and Mohawk Medbuy Corporation on Chedmac Drive.
Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com