West 5th vaccination clinic stays open as Hamilton battles fourth wave

The West 5th COVID shot clinic will stay open for now as Ontario attempts to put the brakes on a fourth wave driven by the aggressive Delta variant and the vaccine hesitant.

The extension - for the second time - of the mass vaccination clinic comes as mobile offerings at local high schools haven't attracted even half as many as expected.

The fourth wave is primarily being fuelled by the unvaccinated among us," Ontario chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore said at a briefing Tuesday. They account for the majority of new cases, the majority of people in hospital and the majority of people in the intensive-care units."

Ontario has hit its original goal of fully vaccinating 75 per cent of those eligible, although dropping COVID restrictions is no longer on the table.

Haldimand and Norfolk remains the only public health unit to have not met the minimum threshold of 70 per cent - it was at 69 per cent Tuesday.

Instead of celebrating, Moore was pleading for people to get the shot - particularly to protect kids under the age of 12 and the immunocompromised, such as cancer patients.

We've lost momentum over the last four to five weeks and at the same time Delta has gained momentum," said Moore. We need to get our numbers higher - above 90 per cent - to slow this virus down ... When you get immunized it's an act of community. It's an act of not just protecting yourself, but protecting everyone around you."

Moore had a pointed message for those under the age of 50 - particularly ages 18 to 29 - as the young make up more of the cases and hospitalizations.

This is not just a disease that impacts the elderly," he said. They are actually the most protected now with the highest rates of immunization."

He said the unvaccinated are eight time more likely to be infected, 29 times more likely be hospitalized and 48 times more likely to need intensive care.

It's significant as hospitalizations rise. COVID patients in Hamilton's hospital has more than doubled to 51 on Tuesday from 23 on Aug. 12.

It bothers me deeply that the majority ... haven't taken advantage of the immunization to protect them," said Moore about hospitalizations.

As Delta spreads rapidly among the unvaccinated, Moore says the doubling time of new infections is 22 days.

For Hamilton it would mean average daily new cases hitting 120 by around the second week of school - not far off the height of the second wave that peaked at 136 in early January.

The Delta variant is proving to be a formidable and aggressive adversary so we must do all we can to increase vaccine uptake," said Moore. Our fate is in our hands."

Hamilton has the fifth-worst vaccination rate among Ontario's public health units.

The city is in the midst of bringing the shot to local high schools with the hope of making it easier for the one in four youth age 12 to 17 who haven't had a first dose yet.

But only 191 people attended the first clinics at Orchard Park Secondary School, Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School, Cathedral High School and Bernie Custis Secondary School on Aug. 21 and 22.

The clinics had anticipated 424 shots - more than double what was administered.

This planned versus actual is 45 per cent which is higher than many other mobile and pop-up clinics over the past month," public health said in a statement without providing further details of how far below capacity recent clinics have been.

Fun nights" at FirstOntario Centre enticed 199 residents on Friday and 169 on Saturday, but public health did not answer questions about how many they aimed to get.

It also didn't provide information about its plan to bring the vaccine to residents at places like shopping centres, parks and community events, saying more details will be coming."

In the meantime, the West 5th vaccination clinic run by St. Joseph's Healthcare will remain open until Sept. 3.

It was originally supposed to close on Aug. 17, but was extended after Premier Doug Ford toured it on Aug. 12.

St. Joseph's, public health and Ford's spokesperson didn't answer questions about whether his visit had anything to do with the extension to Aug. 24.

The clinic has now been extended again because of demand for first doses there.

It has averaged around 200 doses administered per day since Aug. 17, with close to half (46 per cent) of those being first doses," said public health. This percentage of first doses is higher than the average for all Hamilton vaccine sites combined."

The fourth wave has hit Hamilton particularly hard with the city continuing to have the second-highest COVID rate in Ontario.

Hamilton's number of cases per million population went up to 627 in the last seven days - an increase of 24 per cent, shows analysis done by epidemiologist Ahmed Al-Jaishi.

It compares to 368 in third-place Brant and 817 in first-place Windsor-Essex.

Hamilton also had the second-highest test positivity rate at 5.7 per cent for the week of Aug. 8 to 14 - behind Windsor-Essex - according to analysis done by Ontario research institute ICES.

The city has nine active outbreaks with a new one declared Monday at the Beer Store at 55 Cootes Dr. in Dundas, where two staff tested positive.

Cases increased in the outbreak at Sizzle Nightclub in Hess Village to 32 cases - all in patrons. Anyone who was at Sizzle on Aug. 7, Aug. 13 or Aug. 14 is advised to get tested and self-monitor for symptoms.

An outbreak has been declared over at Pure Sense Spa and Salon on Queenston Road, where two staff tested positive.

Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com