By Sue Tiffin

The following are brief reports from a Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge district health unit press conference held Oct. 6 with medical officer of health Dr. Natalie Bocking.

As of last week, 80.7 per cent of the population across the health unit have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, while 85.5 per cent have received one dose of vaccine. 

Bocking said that means 24,000 people who are aged 12 or older are eligible to be vaccinated but have not received one dose. To achieve 90 per cent coverage, she said 12,000 more individuals in the area would need to be vaccinated. 

Characteristics of cases over the past 14 days

Across the region, there have been 2,449 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. At the time of the press conference, there were 16 active cases, two of those in Haliburton, five in City of Kawartha Lakes and eight in Northumberland County. Sixty-four high-risk contacts were associated with those cases. 

In the last 14 days, of 39 cases, 23 per cent were aged 30 to 39, 20.5 per cent of cases were among individuals less than 20. Of the 39 cases, 43.6 per cent had no identifiable source of transmission, 30.8 were identified to be a household contact and 17.9 per cent had had close contact with someone with COVID-19.

Vaccination status of local COVID-19 cases

Since July 1, 289 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed throughout the region. Of those individuals, 65.1 per cent were not vaccinated; 19.7 per cent were partially vaccinated with one dose or with two doses but still within two weeks of their second dose and 15.2 per cent were fully vaccinated.

“This is consistent certainly with what’s being seen province-wide, the vast majority of cases being among individuals that were either unvaccinated or only partly protected through COVID-19 vaccination,” said Bocking.