Vaccination rates starting to slow in HKPR health unit area

DAN CEARNS, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, for The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: While the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health (HKPR) Unit has made progress over the last few months with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, they still see room for improvement.

“We have started to notice our numbers for first dose [vaccinations] have started to level off a little bit,” HKPR medical officer of health Dr. Natalie Bocking told reporters on Wednesday, June 30th.

She later added the health unit would “like to see that number [of people who have received their first dose] as high as possible.” The health unit expects to see lower numbers of Pfizer vaccine shipments coming to HKPR than the 9,300 doses of weeks past.

“For the first two weeks of July, we are receiving slightly less Pfizer [vaccines]. So, next week [there will be] approximately 3,500 doses, and then the week following, approximately 4,600 doses of Pfizer,” Dr. Bocking explained.

However, she added the health unit continues to receive a large supply of Moderna vaccines.

With the province recently moving into Step Two of the reopening framework, Dr. Bocking discussed whether the province should accelerate the move into Step Three.

“I think the Medical Officers of Health across the province are really encouraging the policy decision-makers to be cautious in our continued reopening, in the continued hope this is a forward progression, that we won’t have to take a step back. We know we do need a period of time to monitor what the impact is of reopening. To determine whether or not we will see a resurgence in virus activity. With delta variants being more infectious than some of the other variants, I think we especially want to be cautious to make sure we’re not having to take a step back,” she explained.

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