10-15 New Cases Per Day Expected In KFL&A

Jeff Green | Apr 21, 2021

Prioritising vaccine for hotspots in the GTA is appropriate.

At the tail end of a press briefing late last week, just before new province-wide restrictions were announced, KFL&A Medical Officer of health Kieran Moore said that he expects to see a steady stream of new cases in the region on most days for some time to come.

And he said that the cases are coming from across the region now.

“I expect to see 10-15 cases per day for at least the next week or so. And, we are no longer seeing cases centred around Queen’s University, like we were a week ago”, he said, “they are spread out in communities across the region, in Amherstview Napanee and many other communities as well. The variant that is in our communities’ now is very difficult to manage.”

While the new case rate dropped to 6 in KFL&A on Friday (April 16), it increased by 14, 13, and 14 respectively for the next three says, exactly in line with what was predicted

On Monday, April 19, KFLAPH put up a video pointing out that of the 93 active cases being monitored by them, the entire region is included. There are active cases being monitored in Cloyne, Flinton, Mountain Grove, Sharbot Lake, Verona, Inverary, and Harrowsmith.

“Even with one dose of vaccine for our elderly, these communities are still at risk. What we are finding when we investigate these cases is that there are still too many social activities going on. There is dinner parties, birthday parties, bonfires that have occurred. When you don’t where your mask, the risk of transmission goes up significantly. And that’s what’s occurring across our community. We all have to stay within our household. We all have to reduce the number of social contacts we have,” said Doctor Moore in the video ow.ly/wQQu50EspnN

The overall case rate in parts of Frontenac County is near or higher than the rate in Kingston on a population. The case rate in Central Frontenac is the highest in the region, 120% compared to the rate in Kingston, whereas South Frontenac had 60% of the Kingston rate. With only 2 cases throughout the entire pandemic, North Frontenac’s rate is only 15% of the Kingston rate.

As of Monday, KFL&A had 94 active cases, 38 within the previous 7 days, and a positive testing rate of 1.16%, which would put the region in the Orange zone if a province wide stay at home order were not in place.

The region is still in a much better place than most of the rest of Ontario.

Dr. Moore said that KFL&A has “one of the lowest case rates in Southern Ontario, and one of the highest vaccination rates. It is appropriate, therefore, for the Province to target vaccination at COVID hot spots that are having a much more difficult time than we are in KFL&A”

There will be a decrease in the base amount of Pfizer vaccine coming to the region over the next few weeks, but the vaccine supply will remain steady, Moore said.

“We will be receiving 3,500 doses per week, down by over 1,000 doses,” he said. “But we have made sure that our supply is ensured before booking any appointments at our mass vaccination clinics, so we will not have to cancel any appointments,” he said.

The supply will be enough to cover clinics organised at primary clinics and family health teams such as ones that have been running biweekly in Sharbot Lake and Northbrook, he confirmed.

At the same time, supplies of Astrazeneca vaccines have begun to flow in to pharmacies within the region at a faster rate. The 24 pharmacies, including 3 in Frontenac County (the Inverary, Harrowsmith and Sharbot Lake Pharmasave stores) and 1 in Addington Highlands (Northbrook Guardian pharmacy) all received 300 doses and began administering them on Saturday (April 17)

As of Tuesday (April 20) anyone who is 40 or over (born in 1981 or earlier) became eligible for the pharmacy and primary care clinic-based roll-out of Astrazeneca vaccine, opening up a large new cohort to be vaccinated. People in that age group are encouraged to sign up through the pharmacy tab on the Ontario.ca website.

The bi-weekly vaccination clinic put on by the Sharbot Lake Family Heatlh team on April 19 was the largest they have run thus far. 400 people from their roster of patients, aged 60 and over, received a dose of the Moderna vaccine at the Sharbot Lake fire hall.

As of Monday (April 19) 96% of KFL&A residents who are over 80 years old had received at least one dose of vaccine. The rate is also high for those 75-79 (85.6%). 59.5% of the 70-75 year old population, and 52.4% of 65-69 year old people have had one dose.

Over all, 35% of those over 16 in the region had received a dose on as of April 19. The rate for the province as a whole is 29.5%.

The government of Ontario has set a goal of a 40% vaccination rate by May 5.