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Ontario medical authority urges vaccination ahead of alarming flu season

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An organization representing the province’s physicians is calling for all Ontario residents to get vaccinated this fall.

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) is warning we could see a record-breaking flu season, partly due to rising numbers of people avoiding immunization.

OMA president Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman says the reasoning behind the prediction is the number of infections seen in Australia earlier this year.

“We always look to Australia and surrounding areas because they experience the season ahead of us,” she says. “Those similar trends are often predictive of what we’ll be seeing here and they had another record-breaking season from influenza infections and seeing the complications of that.”

In a release, OMA noted that Australia recorded more than 410,000 lab-confirmed flu cases this year — surpassing the previous high of 365,000 in 2024.

“That is why we are really pressing hard in terms of pushing for everyone to be vaccinated and be prepared for this winter,” adds Dr. Abdurrahman.

She says OMA calls on all Ontarians to take advantage of the free flu and COVID vaccinations made available to all residents as of this past Monday.

While vaccines are available to all members of the public through pharmacies, family doctors, and public health units, Dr. Abdurrahman encourages residents to talk to their doctor if they have any concerns.

“Unfortunately, we know that there is a lot of misinformation that is online,” says Dr. Abdurrahman. “So we really want to ensure that people can have these conversations with someone that they trust.”

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Ford Won’t Mandate Vaccines For Health-Care Workers

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Premier Doug Ford will not mandate health care workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

In a statement released Wednesday, Ford said it’s a complex issue that could result in the departure of tens of thousands of health care workers.

“Experience in other Canadian jurisdictions tells us that implementing a province-wide vaccine mandate for hospital workers can negatively impact the care patients receive,” Ford pointed out. “British Columbia has had to cancel surgeries and diagnostic tests because of the sudden termination of more than 3,000 health care workers after implementing a vaccine mandate. Quebec has now abandoned theirs altogether because of the significant risk an abrupt loss of thousands of health care workers poses to delivering critical services.”

The statement went onto say that the government will maintain its flexible approach by leaving human resourcing decisions up to individual hospitals.

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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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Active Cases Static Despite New Results

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The Northwestern Health Unit says that even though there are four new cases of COVID-19 within their catchment area as of Thursday morning, the number of active cases remains at eight where it was Wednesday.

Two of the new cases are from the Rainy River district, while there is one new case in each of the Kenora and Sioux Lookout regions.

When it comes to the active cases, there are four in the Rainy River area, two in Dryden/Red Lake, one in Kenora and one in Sioux Lookout.

To date, the Health Unit tells us that there have been 1,153 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region since the pandemic began.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit sees another day with no new cases.

Across Ontario, Health Minister Christine Elliott says that there are 677 new cases. She adds that 529 of the cases, or just over 78 per-cent, are in people who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status.

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No New Cases Reported By NWHU

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The Northwestern Health Unit says they have no new cases of COVID-19 to report Tuesday morning.

They tell us that there are currently nine active cases within their catchment area; six in the Rainy River district and three in the Dryden/Red Lake area.

Since the start of the pandemic, the NWHU has administered 113,707 COVID-19 swabs with a test positivity rate of 1.01 per-cent.

On the vaccine front, they say that a total of 119,690 shots have gone into arms.

That translates to 85 per-cent of the 12+ population with at least one dose and 76.7 per-cent with two doses.

Taking a step back and looking at the provincial numbers, Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 574 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday across Ontario. Of those, 434 (75.6 per-cent) are in people who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status.

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NWHU Reports Five New COVID-19 Cases

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The Northwestern Health Unit says there are five new cases of COVID-19 here in the region since their last report on Friday.

Three of the new cases come from the Rainy River district, while the other two are from the Dryden Red Lake region.

They’re part of the 12 active cases the NWHU is tracking within their catchment area, all located in either the Rainy River or Dryden/Red Lake areas.

Since they became available, the health unit tells us that they and their partners have administered 119,326 doses of vaccine.

84.7 per-cent of all those eligible (12+) have received at least one dose, while 76.5 per-cent are fully vaccinated.

For the first time in a few days, there’s one new positive test result in the Thunder Bay District making for four active.

Across Ontario there are 610 new cases and two COVID related deaths.

458 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

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NWHU: Two New Cases, One Active

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The Northwestern Health Unit says there have been two new reported cases of COVID-19 since their last report on Friday.

One of those cases is from the Kenora District, while the other is from the District of Rainy River.

The NWHU tells us that the case from the Rainy River District is not included in the active case count, however, as it is considered resolved. That leaves the case in the Kenora District as the only active one across the health unit’s catchment area.

The regional health authority tells us that 109,788 doses of vaccine have been administered across the region to date.

81 per-cent of all adults (18+) in the NWHU have received at least one shot, while 71.5 per-cent are fully vaccinated.

The numbers for those 12+ are slightly lower; 79.5 per-cent with one dose and 68.8 per-cent fully vaccinated.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit has two new cases and three actives.

All are related to travel outside Northwestern Ontario.

Ontario reported 164 cases today and 168 Holiday Monday.

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Canada Has Enough COVID-19 Vaccine For All Eligible Residents

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Canada has now received more than 66 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines — enough to fully vaccinate everyone who is eligible for a shot.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement during a stop in Moncton, New Brunswick, on Tuesday morning.

“Back in the winter, I made a promise that we would have enough vaccines for all eligible Canadians by the end of September, so not only have we kept that promise, but we’ve done it two months ahead of schedule,” Trudeau told reporters.

Trudeau continued to urge Canadians aged 12 and older to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Fully vaccinated people account for just 0.5 per cent of COVID-19 cases currently being reported, he said.

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NWHU Adds New COVID-19 Case

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The Northwestern Health Unit is reporting one new case of COVID-19 Thursday morning.

As has been the case the past few days, the new case comes from the Rainy River district.

The regional health authority tells us that there are currently three active cases across their catchment area; two in the Rainy River region and one in the Kenora hub.

To the east Thunder Bay marked their 15th day in a row without a new case.

Meanwhile Ontario reported 185 new cases province-wide and seven COVID related deaths.

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Two New Cases Added By NWHU

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For the first time since July 2nd, the Northwestern Health Unit is reporting two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Tuesday morning.

Both of the new cases come from the Rainy River district and are part of the three active cases across the NWHU catchment area.

The third active case comes from the Kenora health hub.

A total of 104,814 doses of vaccine have been administered to date, with 79.7 per-cent of all those 18+ here in the northwest having received at least one shot and 67.4 per-cent fully vaccinated.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit had no new cases to report Tuesday with no active cases remaining.

Across Ontario, there are 127 new cases and two COVID related deaths.

Over 8 million Ontarians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

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