Waterloo region breaks vaccine records on weekend, but didn't give as many doses as hoped

Waterloo region broke a few new COVID-19 vaccine records over the weekend.

In a release Monday morning, the region said 4,904 doses were given Saturday at the hockey hub clinic held at Bingemans, setting a record for the most number of doses administered in Waterloo region at a clinic on a single day.

On Sunday, the Bingemans clinic saw 4,639 doses in arms, for a total of 9,543 at that clinic.

Saturday also saw the highest number of vaccines administered in the region in a single day with 12,820. On Sunday, there were 9,905 doses given in the region.

The region had called it the "every dose counts weekend" and officials had hoped to get 20,000 doses into arms just at the Bingemans clinic alone. 

Despite not reaching the region's goal, Vickie Murray says the weekend was far from a failure.

"I really feel like it was a great success," said Murray, who is the director of pharmacy at Grand River Hospital and St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener. She's also the lead of operations for the vaccine distribution task force. 

"We were hoping for higher numbers, I'll be honest that we had our sights set high," Murray said in an interview on Monday, noting they had capacity for 20,000 doses at Bingemans. In particular, Murray said they saw a lot of 12 to 17-year-olds getting their first doses at that clinic, which was a big win.

"I still look at what we accomplished at Bingemans as almost 10,000 extra doses that we normally wouldn't have done, and that the people who came through Bingemans had a great experience."

Why Bingemans?

Regional health officials say the COVID-19 vaccine is one of the best ways people can avoid getting the virus, and in particular the delta variant, also known as the B1617 variant first detected in India, which is circulating in the community and believed to be the reason for elevated case numbers for the past two months.

CBC K-W asked why Bingemans was chosen as the site for the hockey hub clinic. There are a number of factors that work against the site: It's a significant distance from a downtown core and getting to the facility is difficult because it's not within walking distance for many people. Just one Grand River Transit bus serves the area or, alternately, people needed to drive or take the shuttle bus offered by the region from downtown Kitchener to get to the site. 

There were also other venues being looked at by the region. Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic had tweeted previously that the city was prepared to have the region use The Aud or other city facilities for a vaccination site.

Sharon Ord, the acting vaccine communications lead for the region, said a number of locations were considered for the hockey hub.

"As we needed to stand up this clinic in short order, and needed access to many amenities and services, it was determined Bingemans Conference Centre was the best option for this weekend," Ord said in an email last week.

Murray said she doesn't think a different venue would have changed the number of people who attended the clinic.

"I think there's a variety of reasons why we might not have got as high as we wanted or had hoped," she said.

"We are looking at a smaller population to pull from," Murray said, noting more than 80 per cent of adults in the region have received a first dose. People who recently received their first dose have to wait 28 days for the next one.

"There's a big part of our population who isn't at that 28 days yet," she said.

'We're not going to stop'

Overall, the region is ahead of the province on first doses and slightly behind on second doses.

In the region, as of Monday afternoon, 80.73 per cent of people 18 and older have received their first dose, above the provincial number of 79 per cent.

For second doses, 53.59 per cent of adults in the region have both doses, slightly behind the 55.2 per cent provincially.

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region's medical officer of health, said the region has no plans to let up on the push to get more people vaccinated.

"We're not going to stop," she said last Thursday during a media briefing. "We're not going to ever say, 'OK, we have enough of our residents immunized. We can carry on now.' We're going to keep going."

The region's dashboard shows people between the ages of 30 and 59 have had a slow down in getting their vaccines. People between the ages of 18 to 29 have topped 80 per cent for first doses, despite not being able to get the vaccine until after other age groups.

How people can help

Dr. Kelly Grindrod, in an interview on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition on Friday, said the way people can help ensure the community continues to increase vaccination numbers is to talk to family and friends.

Grindrod said there will be some people who will not get vaccinated, for whatever reason, but that is a "small minority."

"There's not as many people who feel that way as many think," Grindrod said.

"For a lot of people, there's just something that's been putting it off and they need a reason, a motivation, a workplace that everybody else is vaccinated at work, family who says well, we're not going to have a family gathering until you're vaccinated," she said, noting simply  "offering to drive them, offering to support them" could convince some people to get the shot.

"Those little things actually make a huge difference in motivating people to go out and get the vaccine."

Hockey hub continues

The hockey hub clinic will continue at Bingemans this week. Walk-ins are welcome for people requiring a first dose while appointments need to be made for people getting a second dose.

It will run:

• Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The clinic at Bingemans is in addition to other regional clinics — all of which take first dose walk-ins — pharmacies and some family doctors who offer the vaccine.

Murray said there are also other plans in the works for other clinics. She would like to see the region do more drive-thru clinics, as that was well-received by the public.

"We actually have a lot of ideas ahead on how we're going to get out and about more than having people come to us," she said.

She says mobile, pop-up clinics are important tools to reach out to more people in high-risk neighbourhoods.

Murray also hopes to get a vaccine bus up and running that would go to parts of the region with high case numbers but low vaccination rates. That model is still being worked out with Grand River Transit, but she says it could include seeing people knock on doors and invite people into the bus to get their shot.

"As we look forward and as we start to reach more of our goals, everybody gets up to 80 per cent for first and second doses, you know, we need to be a little more strategic and think out of the box on how we're going to reach people," she said.