Optimism in KFL&A as case load drops, and vaccine program continues to speed up.

Jeff Green | Jun 02, 2021

Three weeks ago, in the wake of a COVID-19 outbreak at a construction site, that was causing the largest number of cases in the region over the entire pandemic, Dr. Kieran Moore, the soon to be former Medical Officer of Health for the region, was still hopeful that the trend in cases could be turned by June 2.

That was the date that was set by the government of Ontario for a province wide 'stay at home order' to end. Moore held out hope that with the support of the entire community, KFL&A would be able to come out of the 'stay at home' order in the COVID 'Green Zone'. This would have resulted in more social and economic barriers being lifted than would be the case in the yellow, red, or grey zones.

While the colour zones system has been eliminated, and the re-opening will be the same across the province, that goal of bringing the case load under control in KFL&A has been achieved.

As of Monday, May 31, there were only 10 active cases of COVID among the population of over 200,000 people, the seven-day positive case rate had dropped to 1.9 per 100,000, and the percentage of positive tests had dropped to 0.07%.

Those numbers are well below the upper limits of the Green Zone, which is a 7-day case rate of 7 per 100,000 people and a positive testing rate of 0.5%. The current numbers are similar to the numbers we saw in the region last summer.

At the same time, the vaccination campaign continues to ramp up, with over 18,000 doses of vaccine being administered in the seven days between May 23 and 30. On May 28 alone, thanks in part to the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine getting into the arms of 60-64 year olds who were part of a pharmacy-based pilot project, over 4,700 doses were administered.

As of Monday, over 60% of KFL&A residents, over 12 years old, had received at least one dose of vaccine. That is even with the addition of the 12-17 year old cohort into the calculation, as they just became eligible for vaccine, but very few of them, less than 7%, have been vaccinated thus far.

A vaccination booking system for 12-17 year olds and their families is now available at kflaph.simplybook.plus/v2/#book/count/1/provider/any/

In addition to the mass immunization clinics at the Inivista Centre in Kingston and the Strathcona Centre in Napanee, there is a clinic at the Memorial Centre in Kingston on May 10, and a clinic at Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake between 3pm and 6:30 pm on June 17.

While the Invista Centre is fully booked into the third week of June, the Strathcona Centre has more availability, and there were lots of times available at the Granite Ridge Education Centre clinic as of the beginning of this week.

Just over 5% of KFL&A residents have received a second dose, and that figure is set to climb as the 80+ population became eligible to book a second dose on Monday (May 31). That eligibility will extend to 75 year-old people on June 14.