As of Monday, every adult in the province could book an earlier date, if available, for their second shot of the vaccine through the online booking portal. Such changes needed to be made manually, and the previous appointment would be deleted from the system once a new date was set.
Meanwhile, the EOHU has allowed those aged between 12 and 17 to receive a Pfizer vaccine at mass immunization clinics without an appointment. The initiative is limited to residents of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott-Russell, Cornwall or Akwesasne. Second doses would only be administered without an appointment to those whose first dose happened between eight and 16 weeks prior.
EOHU Medical Officer of Health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis said the walk-in vaccines were intended to boost the percentage of teenagers who had received at least one dose before school begins in the fall. “We’re only at about 52 percent of those individuals, we’d like to be at the 70 to 75 percent range,” he said. “Right now, we want to get good first dose coverage.”
As of Monday, 179,164 doses had been administered across the EOHU. About 78 percent of adults in the area had received at least one dose, while about 27 percent had received both doses. The health unit will add another 22,000 appointments from July 18 to 25, which will become available later this week.
Active cases drop
A correction in the EOHU’s calculation of cases pushed the active case count lower over the past week. As of Monday, just four cases were active in the region, three of which were in Prescott-Russell. Two new deaths were also recorded over the past week. Dr. Roumeliotis said the two residents were elderly, but did not have information on their vaccination status.
Two of the active cases in Prescott-Russell were in Clarence-Rockland, while the other was in The Nation. No other municipalities had recorded active cases at the time of publication. None of those with COVID-19 had been hospitalized or admitted to intensive care.
