The number of long-term care workers in Chatham-Kent who have received the COVID-19 vaccine is a lot less than desired, according to the local medical officer of health.
Dr. David Colby said he had hoped for a lot more than the 50 per cent of the local long-term care staff that have gotten the shot so far and he hopes the number goes up in the future as more opportunities open up. Colby said the amount of staff at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance getting immunized is much higher.
"I'm really hoping that number will go up substantially," said Colby. "I've done my best to dispel any rumours or worries that the vaccines that Health Canada has approved are unsafe or untested because they're very safe and thoroughly tested."
Dr. Colby said people become more hesitant to take the vaccine anytime there's news about adverse effects such as blood clot issues surrounding AstraZeneca. He added people who were vaccinated with AstraZeneca had no higher risk of getting blood clots than the general population.
"I'm hoping the long-term care workers realize the people who they're looking after that are vaccinated are doing very, very well and are healthy and happy and they decide they're going to get it as a result," Colby added.
Colby hopes herd immunity is reached sometime this spring by having a large portion of the community immunized against the virus. To date, nearly 16,000 vaccines have been administered across Chatham-Kent.
Meantime, the COVID-19 outbreak in laboratory services at the Chatham hospital has been declared over by Chatham-Kent Public Health (CKPH). The outbreak was declared on March 7.
"CKHA would like to thank CKPH for their guidance and support during this outbreak, and the hospital’s staff and physicians for their continued commitment to providing safe, high quality care under these difficult circumstances," read a statement released by the hospital on Thursday.
The hospital said infection prevention and control measures will remain in place across the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) and the organization will continue to review and monitor the impact of the pandemic on operations. Visitor restrictions will remain in place and only essential care partners are permitted for inpatients at this time.
Three outbreaks in the dialysis unit at CKHA, Copper Terrace long-term care home in Chatham, and an unidentified place of worship in Chatham-Kent continue. The dialysis outbreak was declared on March 7 and has two cases while the outbreak at Copper Terrace declared on March 11 has one case, and the outbreak at the place of worship declared on March 17 has three cases.
The local public health unit reported 23 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and 10 resolved cases for a total of 78 active cases. There's also one less local COVID-19 patient in the hospital to bring the total down to one.
Walpole Island is also reporting 17 active cases after six new cases and two resolved cases on Thursday. Walpole Island had seven active cases on Tuesday and reported a second death that same day.
March 18, also marks the one year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case reported in Chatham-Kent and the opening of the CKHA COVID-19 assessment centre at St. Clair College.
On Mar. 18, 2020, we opened our COVID-19 Assessment Centre in response to the pandemic. Today on the one year anniversary of launching this testing site, we'd like to thank our Assessment Centre team for their hard work & dedication. Please join us in celebrating this team! #ckha pic.twitter.com/7GqLABbEjE
— Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (@ckhamedia) March 18, 2021