Public health releases plan to give COVID-19 vaccine priority to Hamilton BIPOC residents
Bobby Hristova | CBC News | Posted: April 23, 2021 11:30 PM | Last Updated: April 23, 2021
People of colour who are 18 and older, and live in postal codes L9C, L8W, L8L, L8N and L9K will get priority
Hamilton public health released its plan to prioritize people of colour in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
It says people of colour who are 18 and older, and live in postal codes L9C, L8W, L8L, L8N and L9K will get priority.
It will also operate a clinic at the Restoration House on Vine Street from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The clinic will be open for people of colour in the postal codes above.
The vaccinations are appointment only and people will need to arrive with proof of address.
This comes after public health tried — and failed — to get them priority access to appointments on the weekend.
It also follows pressure from the group advising public health to prioritize racialized, disabled and low-income residents.
City data showed nearly half of all COVID-19 cases in Hamilton self-identify as a member of a racialized community, but people of colour make up less than a quarter of the city's total population.
127 new cases in Hamilton
Hamilton is reporting 127 new daily cases of COVID-19 on Friday.
The city now has a total of 1,905 active cases, which is 260 more than Thursday.
There are also 138 people in hospital with the virus.
Hamilton's per cent positivity rate is 7.9 per cent. To put that into context, at three per cent, public health can no longer keep up with full contact tracing.
The city's reproductive rate is at 1.09, which means the overall number of new cases in the region is growing.
There have been 16,113 total cases since the pandemic started.
Public health says 350 people who had COVID-19 have died and 84.4 per cent of cases have been marked as resolved.
3 new outbreaks, 1 with variants of concern
There are 48 total outbreaks in the city, three of which are new according to the city website, including:
- Mission Services Shelter Overflow site in East Hamilton with one patron case.
- First Class Children's Centre with two staff cases (variant of concern was detected).
- Beth Tikvah Group Home on Main Street with one patron case.
Of the 48 outbreaks, 41 include variants of concern. The B117 variant first seen in the U.K. accounts for all but two of those outbreaks so far.
The outbreak at National Steel Car on 600 Kenilworth Ave N. ballooned from five cases on Thursday to 16 staff infections on Friday.
Shopper's Drug Mart employee tests positive
A staff member at the Shoppers Drug Mart on 1599 Upper James Street has tested positive according to Loblaw.
The company says the last day the team member worked was on April 16.
29.8% of eligible people vaccinated
The city says it has administered 167,529 doses of vaccine, which is 29.8 per cent of those who can get immunized.
Some of the populations with the lowest rates of vaccination include adults receiving chronic home care at 11 per cent, adults aged 55 to 59-years-old at 34 per cent, and essential caregivers in long-term care and retirement homes at 24 per cent.
Brant
The county of Brant and Brantford are reporting 55 new cases.
Brant currently has 304 active cases and 13 people are in hospital.
The latest update puts the county's overall confirmed case count at 2,528. Seventeen people have died.
There have been 44,862 vaccine doses administered so far in the county.
Haldimand-Norfolk
Health officials in Haldimand-Norfolk reported 32 new cases of COVID-19 and one new death on Friday.
The counties currently have a total of 304 active cases and there have been 2,122 infections since March 2020.
Forty-one deaths have been linked to the virus.
Parkview Meadows Christian Retirement Village has an outbreak with two infected staff members.
Two workers at Real Canadian Superstore on 125 Queensway East also have the virus according to Loblaw. They last worked on April 14 and April 20.
There have been 34,800 immunizations.
Halton
Another 126 people in Halton are known to have COVID-19 on Friday, for a total of 14,092 cases since the start of the pandemic. Overall, 209 people have died and 12,982 are marked as resolved.
Of Halton's total cases, 2,892 have been a COVID-19 variant.
As for Burlington, 31 more people are known to have COVID-19, for a total of 259 active cases. Since last March, 3,456 people have tested positive for the virus (580 were variants), of which 3,145 cases are resolved and 52 have died.
Niagara
There are 189 new coronavirus cases in the Niagara Region. One more person has also died, for a total of 387 deaths.
The region has now recorded a total of 12,863 cases of COVID-19 and 2,331 of those are active.
Niagara public health has so far administered 152,504 vaccination doses, which accounts for 29.4 percent of the regional population. Niagara Health has administered 78,429 doses.
Six Nations
Six Nations of the Grand River has recorded 28 active cases of COVID-19. There have been 476 total cases and 438 are resolved. Ten people have died.
There have been 11 B117 cases, and 10 more cases that screened positive as a variant of concern require confirmation.
Six Nations is in alert level black of its colour-coded framework.