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Doctor Kit Young-Hoon

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NWHU: No Herd Immunity Yet

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The vaccination rate for COVID-19 in the region for the first dose is just over 87 percent.

Dr. Kit Young Hoon is the Medical Officer of Health for the Northwestern Health Unit says while that number is good, it’s not good enough.

“It’s very challenging to reach that percentage because a large portion of our population is not eligible to be vaccinated,” says Young Hoon, “We are still aiming at this point to have a high vaccination rate, but it’s not possible to reach herd immunity because those under 12 can’t be vaccinated.”

Young Hoon explains where we need to be for that herd immunity.

“To achieve herd immunity we need 85 to 90 percent of the population vaccinated, but it’s hard to reach that because a large part of our population isn’t eligible (to receive the vaccine).”

The second dose vaccination rate in the region is 80.5 percent.

The Health Unit has administered over 124,000 doses of the vaccine to date.

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NWHU Responds To Vaccine Announcement

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Being able to mix COVID-19 vaccines gives the Northwestern Health Unit more flexibility.

Medical Officer of Health Doctor Kit Young Hoon says that’s especially good for those who had AstraZeneca for their first dose.

“Because of the concerns related to the vaccine-induced blood clots,” says Doctor Young Hoon, “clients are given the option of considering a different vaccine for their second dose.”

She explains that just because they can doesn’t mean that they will.

“We would be aiming to provide the same vaccine (they got for their first dose) if it is available (and) at this time, both Pfizer and Moderna are available in the region.”

Doctor Young Hoon adds that should supply issues arise it’s nice to know they have the option to mix vaccines.

“We now know that the option is there. Because both (Pfizer and Moderna) are mRNA vaccines, it makes them interchangeable if we need to use the other one.”

To date, the Northwestern Health Unit has administered 55,564 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

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Child Care Workers Not Vaccine Eligible

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It will be a few more months before local daycare staff and early childhood educators are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Doctor Kit Young Hoon is the Medical Officer of Health for the Northwestern Health Unit and says that while they are included in phase two of the provincial plan, they fall into the second of two groups.

“ECE’s, educaiton staff, child care staff fall into the second group,” says Young Hoon, “It’s estimated they’ll become eligible for vaccination in June.”

While schools are closed to in-person learning for the foreseeable future, child care centres remain open and are currently providing emergency care for other front-line workers.

The province says they expect to vaccinate around nine million people in phase two, with phase three (anyone 16+ who hasn’t gotten vaccinated and wants to) scheduled to start in July.

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COVID-19 Vaccines Open To 18+ In Select Communities

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The Northwestern Health Unit and their local partners are making progress on vaccinating area residents against COVID-19.

“I am proud of our residents, staff, and volunteers for making our clinics successful thus far. We are still in the early stages of our vaccine roll-out, but we are doing everything we can to get as many people vaccinated as efficiently as possible,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kit Young Hoon. “We received vaccine much later than some areas in the province, but I am pleased to see that we’ve caught up to the province in terms of percentage of shots given.”

To ensure efficiency and to provide vaccine to as many people as possible, the health unit says they will be offering COVID-19 vaccination clinics in some of the region’s smaller communities to those 18 years of age and older.

These NWHU clinics are planned to run over the next several weeks in select communities that were chosen based on location, population, and the number of health unit resources required to offer ongoing clinics.

Information on booking an appointment for these clinics has been sent directly to residents and staff who work in the eligible municipalities and townships.

The health unit explains, all names of people booked into these clinics will be reviewed by local staff to confirm that they are residents or employees of the community.

For more information on these clinics, you may call 1-866-468-2240.

“A COVID-19 vaccine clinic requires many staff and resources to operate. By offering a one or two day clinic open to all adults in these small communities, we are able to free up future resources to enhance our vaccination efforts in our larger communities,” explains Dr. Young Hoon. “Clinics in our larger communities will only be slightly impacted by this process and within a few weeks, we hope that the number of shots given at those clinics will be able to increase by up to 50% in the large communities, pending vaccine allotment.”

To date, nearly 20,000 shots have been given in our region, which means 32% of people aged 18+ in our region have been given at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, on par with Ontario’s rates.

For more information on booking a vaccine appointment for residents of other communities in the NWHU region, please visit the health unit’s website.

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NWHU Working To Vaccinate Homeless Population

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The Northwestern Health Unit is working hard to make sure the most vulnerable get their COVID-19 vaccinations.

Medical Officer of Health Doctor Kit Young Hoon explains that includes the transient population.

“We are working to do targeted vaccination of the homeless/transient population,” says Young Hoon, “It’s happening in many communities…it just depends on the ability to reach that population. The effort is focusing on shelters and drop-in centres.”

She tells us that unlike normal vaccine clinics, it’s hard to get exact data on how the effort is going.

“It is a very fluid population so it is about trying to reach them where they are at…that makes it hard to pin down a number.”

Doctor Young Hoon adds that unlike mass vaccination clinics, which are due to start in earnest next week across the province, you shouldn’t expect to hear anything about them beforehand.

“At this point, we are not publicising clinics ahead of time due to security and privacy, especially in these kinds of clinics where the setting is a little more challenging to control.”

The effort comes following a surge of COVID-19 cases among the homeless population in Thunder Bay.

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NWHU Provides Update On Vaccine Distribution

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It could be a couple more weeks before the next shipment of COVID-19 vaccines reaches our area.

Medical Officer of Health for the Northwestern Health Unit Doctor Kit Young Hoon says initially they’ll be looking to offer vaccines to anyone who received the first dose of the vaccine last month.

“We will be focusing on second doses for those in the area who have already received their first dose,” says Doctor Young Hoon, “Vaccinating staff and essential visitors in long term care homes, elder residents, and high-priority health care workers.”

She explains they expect the shipment to arrive March 15th.

“We expect that our regions roll-out will be a few weeks behind as has been the case with other populations like long-term care home residents and staff.”

Doctor Young Hoon adds they do plan to set up mass vaccination clinics in each of the communities they serve.