6 things you need to know about COVID-19 in York Region now

Child-focused vaccination clinic planned to help curb spread that is ‘quite high’ among 5-11 age group

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 10, 2021
Kim Zarzour

“Still smiling, a little bit challenging” is how York Region’s new medical officer of health, Dr. Barry Pakes, described his first three weeks on the job at this morning’s regional council meeting, before launching into his latest update on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are some key points:

1. York Region Public Health is seeing a significant increase in workload due to COVID-19, with unvaccinated children the most impacted by illness at a “quite high” case rate of about 105 per 100,000.

There are about 64 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the region every day -- not including probable cases.

2. The most recent modelling predicts cases of COVID-19 will continue to increase substantially in York Region over the coming weeks, peaking after the end of January or early February.

The Omicron variant is likely to impact those modelling predictions, as it is spreading more quickly than health experts had hoped. An update is expected next week.

3. There are now four cases of the Omicron variant in York Region. They are confined to two households and are travel-related, with the latest case being a female in Markham between the ages of 19 and 34.

The first case was a child who had travelled to South Africa and two female household contacts who also tested positive.

Thanks to quick work in testing and contact tracing, none of these cases have spread into the community. However, there have been many cases elsewhere in Ontario, some of which are linked to community transmission.

4. York Region Public Health has closed two Thornhill private schools -- Eitz Chaim School, Springfarm Branch and Netivot HaTorah Day School and Child Care.

The closures are expected to be short, with a view to getting children back to in-person learning as quickly as possible through testing.

5. Vaccinations among children aged 5 to 11 are progressing well, with about 25 per cent in York Region having received their first shots.

This age group is driving illness and keeping kids out of school, but it’s expected that “well beyond” half of these kids will be vaccinated by the end of the year. The region hopes to dramatically boost numbers with a large, child-focused clinic, able to immunize 2,000 children per day, held Dec. 18 and 19.

6. Starting Dec. 13, those aged 50 and older will be eligible for boosters.

This is a much larger group than the currently eligible 70-plus group, and the province plans to do most of those booster doses through pharmacies, but York clinics have the capacity to deliver about 5,000 doses a day. Public Health is currently working on the balance between those clinics.

About 30 per cent of those 70 and older have received boosters so far.