York Region is considering how to tackle COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, with some concerns about whether the last portion of the adult population will get their doses.
Medical officer of health Dr. Karim Kurji said today he is concerned that approximately 26.5 per cent of adults in the region have yet to receive a first vaccination dose.
“We do want to ensure that we don’t get outbreaks that are very resource intensive and would be potentially damaging,” Kurji said. “Particularly if we start getting the new variant.”
He said several factors can contribute to hesitancy, including technology, accessibility, booking system issues, or competing demands.
At the special regional council meeting this morning, Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said the region and municipalities should step the campaign to address vaccine hesitancy over the summer.
He said ideally to achieve some herd immunity by the fall, the region should get at least 80 per cent of people fully immunized. But he added the ideal is probably 85 or 90 per cent.
“It would appear from the numbers we have now, that’s going to potentially be difficult,” Taylor said. “We do have vaccine hesitancy of some number.”
Kurji agreed and said several groups are working on the issue. He said there is a risk with the disease continuing to transmit in small areas, and outbreaks will probably be an issue for another 18 months. But he added it should be manageable with contact tracing and case management.
“We have suffered greatly with the pandemic,” Kurji said. “Now is a chance, as it were, to keep things very controllable.”
Taylor said vaccine hesitancy is an issue on which all jurisdictions of government should be focusing.
“We can lead in that area and encourage others by example,” Taylor said. “Try and make sure we’ve done everything possible to keep those to wavelets and not a full-on wave that would require any kind of greater restrictions on those businesses — and frankly, health impacts on our residents.”
