The response to COVID-19 dominated operations in 2021 for the Northwestern Health Unit.
A wrap-up report has been publicly released and it shows over 164,000 doses of the vaccine were administered across the region.
Alex Berry is the Manager of Foundational Standards and Communications and says, “That’s like twice the population of our whole catchment area and that was the work of many, many people over lots of months and that includes first, second and booster doses.”
In December, the Health Unit had the highest first dose coverage rate in Ontario, and the third highest second dose rate when compared to other health units.
Berry notes through the hard work of everyone at the health unit they were able to save lives and make our communities safer places to live.
He reminds us we aren’t in the clear.
“Some of the lessons that we learned in how we respond to COVID as a health unit and as a community, we carry forward as we think more about how COVID, there might be a resurgence in the fall.”
Other pandemic-related statistics:
-NWHU staff followed up with 1,770 positive PCR test results and an additional 3,662 contacts
-NWHU answered more than 25,000 questions from the public through their COVID-19 hotline, web chat feature, email and social media channels
-The NWHU website saw over 2.3 million page views, averaging 6,404 views per day
