For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

June 29, 2021

To ensure everyone has current information, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health will be providing regular COVID-19 updates.

For more information please review our website or call 613-966-5500 or 1-800-267-2803.

Effective June 29, 2021, this bulletin will be issued every other week.

Updates

Epidemiological

• Hastings and Prince Edward Counties have 1,128 cumulative lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1 active, 1,116 resolved and 11 deceased. There were no new cases reported today.
  • There is no local long-term care facility experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak; additional outbreak details can be found online.
  • More information is available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca
• VOCs: 493
• 7 day case rate: 0.6 per 100,000                         ~ Positivity Rate: 0.6%
• Individuals with first dose:  112,866                     ~ Fully vaccinated individuals to date:  45,335

Vaccinations by Client Location - Dose 1 (as at June 29, 2021)

• Ontario is reporting 299 cases of COVID-19 as over 28,300 tests were completed yesterday. Locally, there are 130 new cases in Toronto, 69 in the Region of Waterloo, 20 in Peel Region, 11 in Grey Bruce, 10 in Durham Region and 10 in Niagara Region.

• In Canada, as at June 28, 2021, there are 1,414,134 total cases of COVID-19 with 7,816 active cases and 1,380,080 recovered. To date, there have been 26,238 COVID-19 related deaths and more than 36,243,642 individuals tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to June 28, 2021

Summary of Cases in Ontario Schools - Updated April 27, 2021.

Schools are not being reported during the current period of remote learning.  Reporting will resume after in-person learning resumes.

Local Updates

Upcoming Vaccination Clinics - 12+ years of age

Loyalist College - Belleville - 9 am to 4 pm 

• Tuesday, June 29
• Wednesday, June 30

Quinte Sports & Wellness Centre - Belleville - 9 am to 4 pm

• Tuesday, June 29
• Wednesday, June 30
• Friday, July 2
• Saturday, July 3
• Monday, July 5
• Tuesday, July 6

Prince Edward Community Centre - Picton - 9:30 am to 3:30 pm

• Tuesday, July 6

Bancroft Legion - Bancroft - 10 am - 3 pm

• Tuesday, June 29
• Tuesday, July 6

Please note that youth aged 12-17 are invited to walk-in appointments at several upcoming clinics. See our recent Media Release for more information.

Provincial

All Ontarians Aged 18+ Become Eligible for Accelerated Second Doses:

• As of Monday, June 28, 2021, all Ontarians aged 18 and over who received their first dose of an mRNA vaccine became eligible to book an appointment to receive their second ahead of schedule. 
• The province continues to take action to further protect Delta hot spots by accelerating second doses and expanding second dose coverage. Between June 14 and June 23, 2021 more than 1,090,000 doses have been administered to people living in Delta hot spot public health units, and a total of 230,000 additional doses were provided to Delta hot spots for the week of June 21st, 2021.
• As of June 26, 2021, youth aged 12 to 17 who live in a Delta hot spot (Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Peel, Porcupine, Simcoe-Muskoka, Toronto, Waterloo, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph and York public health units) became eligible to book an accelerated second dose appointment through the provincial booking system, directly through public health units that use their own booking system, and through participating pharmacies.
• In all other public health units, second doses for youth remain as they are currently booked at this time. To support a safe return to school in September, the province will be looking to accelerate youth second dose bookings following individuals aged 18 and over.

Calls for Reopening the Economy Earlier than Scheduled:

• Premier Ford continues to face increasing pressure from business and media to reopen closed sectors of the economy, ranging from in-door dining at restaurants to gyms and fitness centers.
• The Premier responded by pleading with Ontarians to bear with him “for a very short period,” emphasizing that he has “to follow the directions of the Chief Medical Officer.”
• He said “everyone has this perception I’m the Premier, I get to snap my fingers and get it done. It just doesn’t work that way…. Do I have a big big say in it? 100 percent. But I also believe in surrounding myself with medical professionals throughout this whole pandemic…I’m listening to the doctor's advice.”
• The Premier stressed that “there’s no one that wants to open this province up more than I do, we’re very very close, we’ll be sitting down with the new chief medical officer of health, Dr. Moore, and we’ll get his advice, and if he gives us the green light. Let's get this province open and start moving, I can’t wait, I really can’t.”
• As Ontario prepares to move to Stage 2 of reopening, provincial officials are tracking the Delta variant of concern, estimated to account for about 69 percent of all new infections. If that variant increases its reproductive rate (i.e. the average number of people a person with COVID-19 will infect) above a value of one, this would indicate a rapid increase in the spread of this variant. Currently, this rate stands at .99.
• The province has been accelerating second dose vaccinations in Delta variant hot spots.

Ontario to Enter Step Two of its Roadmap to Reopen Plan:

• The province announced it will continue to ease more public health restrictions on Wednesday, June 30th, due to further improvements in key public health and healthcare indicators. Step Two of the Roadmap to Reopen includes but is not limited to:
• Outdoor social gatherings and organized public events with up to 25 people;
• Indoor gatherings and organized public events with up to 5 people;
• Essential and other select retail permitted at 50 percent capacity;
• Non-essential retail permitted at 25 percent capacity;
• Personal care services where face coverings can be worn at all times, at 25 percent capacity;
• Outdoor dining with up to six people per table, with exceptions for larger households;
• Indoor religious services permitted at up to 25 percent capacity of the particular room;
• Outdoor fitness classes limited to the number of people who can maintain 3 metres of physical distance; and
• Overnight camps for children are permitted to operate under mandated health and safety guidelines

Beyond the Pandemic and Preparing for an Endemic State:

• As case numbers decline and immunization rates increase, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Moore said Ontario is “making terrific progress in protecting our community and moving from a pandemic to an endemic state where we can try to get back to normal.”
• He said the province is “doing all the due diligence to prepare” for an endemic state “by having our health units starting to tabletop and build capacity for case-and-contact management, for ongoing testing capacity throughout the next year, as well as restoring all their basic public health functions and health system functions."
• Dr. Moore stressed that “it's very important that all Canadians realize that only 10% of the globe is going to have access to vaccines as we speak…[and] 90% of the globe is not immunized, and that's where the virus continues to circulate, where mutations will develop, and any returning traveller could bring the virus back into Canada at any given time."
• He highlighted the need for a robust federal testing, isolation and quarantine strategy “because that's the only way the virus can come back into us, once we have a low endemic rate and… that's where we really have to focus our energies going forward.”

Adverse Events Following Immunization Among Youth:

• Asked about concerns of parents regarding a handful of cases of myocarditis among children who’ve been vaccinated, Dr. Moore reassured parents that “we're monitoring this data very closely,” adding that Canada has “a great adverse event following immunization safety net to monitor for it.”
• He described a system where that data is collected at a local public health agency level, aggregated and analyzed at the provincial level, and then shared federally
• Dr. Moore indicated that "at present we're not seeing any significant signal from the mRNA vaccines with the association of inflammation of the heart muscle or the sack that's around the heart.”
• He noted that the National Advisory Committee on Immunization is expected to provide a review of myocarditis/pericarditis associated with the mRNA vaccines to provincial health officials “next week” and that will be made available to parents.

Federal

New Guidelines and National Overview of Trends and Cases:

• Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Tam indicated the latest national-level data show a continued downward trend in disease activity with an average of 758 cases reported daily during the latest seven-day period, down 33% compared to last week.
• Likewise, the overall number of people experiencing severe and critical illness is also steadily declining with an average of 1,114 people with COVID-19 being treated in Canadian hospitals each day during the last week, which is 22% fewer than the week before. Of these, on average, 533 people were being treated in intensive care units, 18% fewer than last week.
• While the average number of daily deaths are down 9%, sadly, an average of 18 deaths were reported daily.
• She indicated that “over the past two months, we’ve made significant progress in bringing COVID-19 disease activity down and raising vaccination coverage up, although the Delta variant of concern has emerged as the latest hurdle.” She warned that if the Delta variant becomes the dominant strain, it could lead to a larger than expected resurgence in case numbers this fall.
• Dr. Tam suggested that “Canada has every opportunity to avoid a strong Delta wave by remaining vigilant to keep infection rates low, as we build the vaccination barrier wall high.”
• She said the “summer is looking pretty good and what I am watching for is what happens when each of the individual provinces reopens” because “that will tell us if we will get some resurgence.”
• The Public Health Agency of Canada released new guidelines on what fully vaccinated people can do. The Agency has made new resources available to Canadians, including the MyCOVID-19 Visit Risk Calculator to help people assess the risks before visiting, gathering or meeting with others. It is important to note that Ontario regulations are still in effect and this guidance from PHAC does not supersede regulations in place in the province.
• The Public Health Agency of Canada has created a new security and intelligence division within the agency to provide a faster warning of future pandemics.

Latest COVID-19 Federal Modelling Data:

• Sustained national decline across COVID-19 disease activity and severity indicators.
• Regional COVID-19 trends show decreasing hospital occupancy following sustained decline in disease incidence.
• Hospitalizations continue to decline across all age groups.
• National Rt has remained out of an epidemic growth pattern (Rt<1) since mid-April.
• Evidence shows COVID-19 vaccines are highly protective, with a low percentage of cases reported following vaccination.
  • 0.14% of partially vaccinated people were infected ≥ 14 days following the first dose.
  • 0.08% of fully vaccinated people were infected ≥ 7 days following the second dose.
• Short-term forecast predicts a slowing rate of growth for cumulative cases as well as cumulative deaths.
• Two-month forecast shows the epidemic is projected to decline nationally, but could resurge if re-opening increases contact rates by 50% or more.
• International experience with the emergence of the Delta variant highlights the need for caution until vaccination coverage is high across the population.
• The more contagious and severe Delta variant may result in greater than previously expected resurgence this fall/winter.
• Increasing vaccine uptake, especially in younger populations, could reduce the potential resurgence of the Delta variant this fall.
• Longer-range forecasts predict overall downward trends in most jurisdictions across the country, but resurgence could occur in some areas with reopening.

HPEPH

• Media Release: Walk-In Appointments Available for Youth at COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics at Bancroft Legion, Loyalist College, and Picton

• Media Release: Get fully immunized with first available COVID-19 vaccine to protect yourself and avoid resurgence of cases in our region

• Media Release: New daytime drop-in program in downtown Belleville aims to support the health and wellbeing of those experiencing homelessness

• Haven’t received a COVID-19 vaccination? We want to hear from you!
  • To ensure all members of the community have access to the vaccine, HPEPH wants to learn more about why residents might be unable to book an appointment, or why they might choose not to get vaccinated. If you have not received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccination for either reason, we want to hear from you! Please share your input by completing our short, anonymous survey.
  • The survey, which should take no more than five minutes to complete, will help HPEPH understand how we can improve access to and/or available information about COVID-19 vaccination. As a thank you for those who take the time to provide feedback, individuals who participate can choose to provide contact information for a chance to win a $25 gift card to a local store. To participate, the survey must be completed by July 16, 2021.

Useful Links

• Ontario's Roadmap to Reopen
• HPEPH COVID-19 Vaccine Booking and Eligibility web page
• HPEPH COVID-19 Vaccine Standby List
• HPEPH COVID-19 General Information
• HPEPH COVID-19 Information for Health Care Providers
• How Ontario is responding to COVID-19
• Public Health Ontario - COVID-19
• Canada.ca - COVID-19

You have received this email at kkhani@hpeph.ca from Hastings Prince Edward Public Health as a result of a request you have made or due to a service/subscription that you are registered for. While you may discontinue your subscription to this mailing at any time by pressing the unsubscribe button below, this bulletin will be used to provide important updates about COVID-19 in our community.