York Region to cease weekend COVID-19 data updates

Newmarkettoday.ca
June 14, 2021

 

The Regional Municipality of York is making changes to its data reporting on COVID-19 cases and vaccination rates following a decline in new COVID-19 cases and an increase in vaccination rates across the Region.

Effective Monday, June 14, 2021, the COVID-19 in York Region interactive dashboard at york.ca/COVID19Data will be updated at 5 p.m. Monday through Friday only. The dashboard and supporting data will not be updated on Saturdays, Sundays or statutory holidays.

The dashboard will be updated each Monday at 5 p.m. with a new daily case count for that day and will showcase the cumulative totals from the previous two days. The weekly map updates will now take place on Monday at 5 p.m. instead of Saturday. As always, residents will maintain the ability to interact with the data to take a deeper look at data points specific to a single date. The last weekend dates the dashboard will be updated are Saturday, June 12, 2021 and Sunday, June 13, 2021.

“With nearly 773,000 York Region residents who have received a least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination and second doses now being administered to eligible individuals, there is hope and optimism for brighter days ahead,” said York Region Chairman and CEO Wayne Emmerson. “The continued efforts of all York Region residents to follow public health guidelines, combined with in-depth case and contact management through Public Health, will help to ensure York Region and our surrounding communities can avoid the devastating impacts of another rise in COVID-19 and variants of concern.”

As of June 14, 2021, the dashboard will also be further streamlined to remove the “Public Health Performance” and “Severity and Resolution” tabs. With declining case counts, a high proportion of our total COVID-19 cases are now considered resolved with more than 95 per cent of cases being followed up within 24 hours.

This information can be found in other areas on the dashboard, such as the “Pandemic Tracker” for timely case follow-up and “Case Counts and Epi Curve” for an overview of COVID-19 case status breakdown.

A new tab will be added to highlight information obtained from York Region’s ongoing wastewater surveillance initiative – an emerging field and area of research that can signal trends in the community and potentially capture individuals who do not get tested. This information will be updated biweekly.

First launched in April 2020, the COVID-19 in York Region interactive dashboard has been viewed more than 2.7 million times and has served as a trusted source for accurate data, allowing users to view and pull relevant information on COVID-19 incidences in their community and around the Region.

In February 2021, important information on vaccination efforts and rates was added to the interactive dashboard, allowing residents to track York Region’s progress in advancing its mass vaccination distribution plan, in alignment with the provincial vaccination rollout.

York Region continues to be a leader in the consistency, transparency and availability of data related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the interactive dashboard has been used to help plan targeted response strategies, vaccination efforts and inform decision-making at a local level.