94% of KFL&A 'over 80's' have now been vaccinated

Jeff Green | Apr 14, 2021

Vaccination rollout to slow down in KFL&A over the next month, Moore indicates.

Late last week, 89% of the oldest and most vulnerable residents of Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) had received at least on dose of vaccine, and Dr. Kieran Moore of Public Health said that the program for that cohort was not hitting any kind of wall because of vaccination hesitancy.

“Not in the least,” he said on Friday afternoon (April 9), “in fact we have bookings that will bring that number up to 96%, which is brilliant. There has been a very strong acceptance of the efficacy and safety of vaccines from our seniors, and we see that extending to the rest of our population.”

By Monday (April 12), the number in the vaccination dashboard on the KFLA Public Health site was update to 94%. And ten per cent of the over 80 population are fully vaccinated with two doses.

64% of people who are between 75-79 and 79 have received dose of vaccine so far.

For those in the 70-74 age range, the rate is 48%, and 41% of 65-69 years olds have had their first dose as the rollout for that age range only began at the beginning of April.

The pharmacy based pilot project with the Astrazeneca vaccine has had a major impact for KFL&A residents between 60 and 64. Almost two thirds (66%) of that cohort have received a dose of vaccine.

The daily vaccination chart on the dashboard shows a pronounced bump during the two week period in March when the pharmacy pilot took place. The pilot brought over 20,000 doses of vaccine to over 40 pharmacies in the region. Over 2,000 people were vaccinated each day over an 8 day period, and on the 3rd and 4th days of the pharmacy pilot, over 3,000 people were vaccinated. Many of those people were from outside KFL&A, however.

These vaccination numbers that have not been seen since mid-March in KFL&A, but they demonstrate how much vaccination capacity there is in the region if pharmacies, primary care, hospitals and public health all had ready supplies of vaccine available.

But that availability will be limited, at least in the short term.

On Friday, Dr. Moore said that a secure supply of not less than 1250 doses per week of Pfizer and Moderna would be arriving for the month of April in the region, 5000 for the month. To put that into context, less than 3% of the eligible population (people over 16 years old) would get vaccinated in one month at that rate of vaccination. At the peak of the pharmacy pilot, on March 16, 3723 vaccinations took place in one day

“I don't see any likelihood of extra doses coming our way this month,” Moore said.

He said that the provincial system holds back 10% of doses to allocate where needed, and that will be in the Toronto and Peel regions in the coming weeks.

At least partly as a result of the pharmacy pilot, as of Monday (April 12) KFL&A had an 8.7% higher vaccination rate than the Province of Ontario as a whole (30.5% in KFL&A as compared 21.8% in Ontario)

Since eligibility is provincially controlled, and through the provincial booking system any eligible resident can book immunization at any location in the province, the gap between KFL&A and the Province is sure to shrink.

Also on Monday, during a Youtube video describing the vaccination progress in our region, Dr. Moore indicated, by omission, that he does not expect the supply of vaccine to the region will ramping up in our region in the month of May.

“Our community is responding to the first doses availability, and, it will only get better as we get more vaccine in June, July and August as we further protect the vast majority of our community” he said at the conclusion of the video.

Case load mainly centred in Kingston, but South Frontenac has seen a rise.

A spike in cases in the Queen's University district of Kingston has been the main cause of an 81 case surge in the City between April 5 and 12, but South Frontenac Township has seen 5 new cases over that week as well, making it one of the worst weeks of the pandemic for the township. There have been 71 recorded COVID cases in the township since the pandemic began in March of 2020. There were no new cases reported among residents of Central Frontenac, North Frontenac or Addington Highlands between April 5 and 12. To date, there have been 31 cases in Central Frontenac, only 1 in North Frontenac, and 4 in Addington Highlands.

As the result of a provincial stay at home order, gatherings out of doors are limited to 5 people who do not live in the same house, and they must be masked and distanced. No multi-family gatherings are permitted indoors at all. The only exception is that people who live alone may join a bubble with one family.