More than 75 per cent of Waterloo region residents over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Regional officials announced the milestone during a media briefing Friday morning as the weekly case rate sits at 21 cases per 100,000 per week.
But the work isn't over yet.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 residents eligible for the vaccine still haven’t received a first dose.
Regional Chair Karen Redman said work to get the remaining eligible population vaccinated will now shift from a clinic-based approach to a more targeted strategy focused on vaccine buses that will make rounds to neighbourhoods identified as having lower vaccination rates.
One of those buses will be at Forward Church on Franklin Boulevard in Cambridge on Saturday between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., and Cambridge Centre Mall between noon and 2 p.m.
Appointments are not required at any clinic.
Southwood Secondary School is also honouring all appointments and accepting walk ins from 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The region will launch a “homebase” vaccination strategy on Aug. 15 that expands criteria for outreach to include anyone having difficulty getting to a clinic, pharmacy or primary care doctor for a vaccine because they can’t leave their home due to physical limitations or medical requirement, face challenges accessing transportation, or require privacy in accessing the vaccine.
“We’re doing everything we can to make this as easy as possible,” said Vaccine task force member Vickie Murray. “Yes we’ve reached those provincial targets, but we’re not stopping.”
The region’s medical officer of health, Dr. Hsui-Li Wang, has proposed a 90 per cent vaccination rate should be the next target in order to bring the highly-transmissible Delta variant under control.
Other efforts to reach the next goal include pop-up clinics at the region’s three major malls where the focus will be getting vaccines into the arms of the 12 to 17 demographic before they return to school.
As of Friday morning, 73.26 per cent of youth in that age range had received at least one dose of the vaccine with 59.22 per cent fully vaccinated.
Dr. Wang said although vaccinations lag slightly in the youngest demographic, Waterloo region’s numbers are above the provincial average for that age group.
Two of the region’s vaccination clinics will administer their final doses on Friday; the Health Sciences Campus Kitchener vaccination clinic and the Wellesley vaccination clinic.
Murray said the “last mile” of the vaccination rollout in the region also includes texts and phone calls encouraging people to get the vaccine.
“Phone calls have been very effective and many people we’ve been calling in the morning have been coming in in the afternoon,” Murray said.
Dr. Jen Jones, a primary care physician who was administering doses out of the Wellesley clinic, said the approach of having family physicians administer doses helped heighten the level of trust felt by those coming into the clinics.
“Lots of people were anxious to get the vaccine, lots of people were hesitant as well,” she said.
Doctors throughout the region are working off lists of their patients who have gotten the vaccine so they can do outreach to those that don’t.
“If we can increase vaccinations and increase precautions, we can blunt the impact of a fourth wave,” Dr. Wang said, adding the large majority of new cases are those that are unvaccinated. Wang said the general trend across the region, as older demographics receive the vaccine, is a shift in younger, unvaccinated people, getting COVID.
It reflects the fact that those age categories are less protected and should be expected to continue for some time, she said.
The possibility of holding vaccine clinics in schools when classes resume is under consideration but Murray said parents generally like to be with their children when they get vaccinated.
“We’ll continue to do everything we can to make it more accessible, make it more convenient for youth and their parents,” said Wang.
The latest serious outbreak in the region hit the Nazarene Christian Congregation on Aug. 8 when an outbreak was declared. It has since spread to 25 individuals who are being told to self isolate, seek testing and follow public health instruction.
Wang said unmasking, lack of distancing and singing all played a role in causing the outbreak.
The Lancaster Street church closed voluntarily and all cases are being monitored. Wang said anyone who attended the church on Aug. 1 is considered a high risk contact.
