Despite continuing spread of COVID-19 and deaths still being reported, few people in Windsor-Essex are opting to get booster shots.
According to the Windsor Essex County Health Unit (WECHU), 47. 6 per cent of Windsor-Essex citizens had received their third dose, as of January 4. The absorption rate of the fourth dose is lower, with 19. 9 percent of citizens having received the vaccine.
Both totals are roughly three percentage points lower than the provincial average.
Windsor-Essex’s acting fitness officer calls this “concerning”.
“I recognize that we are now in the third year of the pandemic, but our way of managing the pandemic and COVID-19 is to minimize the burden of disease in the network,” said Dr. Shanker Nesathurai. “Getting vaccinated is a key component of trying to save it or reduce the burden of disease on the network as a whole. »
Nesathurai’s advice comes as a new, more infectious subvariant called XBB.1.5 is driving up case counts in the U.S. Known as the “Kraken” variant, the subvariant is causing an estimated 28 per cent of cases south of the border, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The U.S. agency also says that Monroe County in Michigan is seeing high levels of COVID-19.
Dr. Wassim Saad, chief of staff at Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH), told a hospital board meeting Thursday that he believes the “highly infectious and highly infectious” subvariant of Omicron is already in Windsor.
“We will be one of the first spaces in Canada to see a variant like this come to our community,” he said, mentioning Windsor as a border community.
Nesathurai said disease activity is increasing in Windsor-Essex in January so far compared to all of December. COVID-19 indicators such as the number of cases, the percentage of positive cases, and the number of hospitalizations are increasing, and there has been six deaths. Nesathurai said disease activity tends to increase as the winter rolls on.
WECHU is aiming to drive up vaccination rates at pop-up clinics across the county. A clinic in Leamington saw people come out to receive their vaccinations.
“We are excited to welcome netpaintings for generally their booster shots,” said Laura Strathdee, clinical practice director at Windsor Essex Community Health Center (weCHC) in Leamington. “We intend to offer two weekend clinics per month to make vaccines available to those who work Monday through Friday or want access on the weekends. ”
Migrant staff also arrived at the temporary clinic on Sunday on a bus at 11 a. m. Strathdee said he is looking to bring in busloads of migrant staff to get vaccinated every Sunday.
“We have a wonderful relationship with farms to vaccinate them,” he said. “We use language support, nurses and providers who speak your language so that we can do a wonderful job of answering all your questions. Doses in other countries don’t fit here, so it’s a little harder to locate what they need. Get it and get them on the right track here.
Some are happy to receive the vaccines and recognize the importance of getting vaccinated.
“It is very important to get vaccinated because the scenario is getting worse in some regions and countries,” said Benjae Ondoy, a migrant employee from the Philippines.
Ondoy and his friends Bryan Tiamsim and Dave Amada, who are also from the Philippines, say the situation is getting worse in their homeland, saying a vaccination card is required to go to some public places.
Journalist
TJ is a reporter for CBC North in Iqaluit and previously worked at CBC Windsor. You can reach him on tj. dhir@cbc. ca.
Add “good” to your morning and afternoon.
Your daily guide to the coronavirus outbreak. Get the latest news, tips on prevention and your coronavirus questions answered every evening.
The next item from the Coronavirus Report will be in your inbox soon. Check out all CBC newsletters in the Subscription Centre.
This site is powered by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service apply.
Public Relations, CBC P. O. P. Box 500, Toronto station, ON Canada, M5W 1E6
Toll-free (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636
It is a precedent for CBC to create products that are available to everyone in Canada, adding other people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive disabilities.
Captions and described videos are available for many CBC presentations on CBC Gem.