Nearly 1,500 children newly eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine have received their first dose in the region.
The Porcupine Health Unit's weekly epidemiology report is out and breaks down where the region is at.
Since last week's report, 373 more people received their second dose of the vaccine, bringing the total number of people with both doses of the vaccine to 51,817. There has been an increase of 758 people who received their first dose, bringing the total number of people who have received their first dose of the vaccine to 57,015.
With an increase of 1,507 people getting their third dose, 3,594 people have now received a booster.
In the region, 89.3 per cent of the population (12 years and up) has received the first dose of the vaccine and 84.8 per cent have both doses. According to the provincial data available as of Dec. 9, 83.3 per cent of the total eligible population five years and older have their first dose and 77.5 per cent have both doses.
Broken down by age range in the region, provincial data as of Dec. 9 reports:
- 5 to 11 years - 1,471 people (20.8 per cent) have their first dose. There are 7,067 eligible.
- 12 to 17 years - 4,920 people (83.3 per cent) and 4,541 (76.9 per cent) have both doses. There are 5,900 people eligible.
- 18 to 29 years - 10,692 people (81.1 per cent) have their first dose and 9,762 people (74.1 per cent) have both doses. There are 13,174 people eligible.
- 30 to 39 years - 8,839 people (85.6 per cent) have their first dose and 8,159 people (79 per cent) have both doses. There are 10,325 people eligible.
- 40 to 49 years - 8,609 people (86.9 per cent) have their first dose and 8,166 people (82.4 per cent) have both doses. There are 9,905 people eligible.
- 50 to 59 years - 10,699 people (88.6 per cent) have their first dose and 10,358 people (85.7 per cent) have both doses. There are 12,076 people eligible.
- 60 to 69 years - 11,433 people (96.5 per cent) have their first dose and 11,179 people (94.4 per cent) have both doses. There are 11,840 people eligible.
- 70 to 79 years - 6,866 people (99.9 per cent) have their first dose and 6,756 people (99.2 per cent) have both doses. There are 6,809 people eligible.
- 80 years and up - 3,784 people (99.9 per cent) have their first dose and 3,674 people (99.9 per cent) have both doses. There are 3,641 people eligible.
- Five people with undisclosed or missing information have their first dose and two people are fully vaccinated.
The data is also broken down by community, however, it reflects the number of vaccines given and not necessarily the number of residents vaccinated living in the community. For example, someone could get one or both doses in a city they don't live in.
The stats by the community are:
- Cochrane - 80.6 per cent first dose, 64.4 per cent second dose
- Hearst - 92.9 per cent first dose, 79 per cent second dose
- Hornepayne - 100 per cent first dose, 100 per cent second dose
- Iroquois Falls - 79.3 per cent first dose, 59.6 per cent second dose
- Kapuskasing - 75.1 per cent first dose, 66.8 per cent second dose
- Matheson - 70.7 per cent first dose, 87.9 per cent second dose
- Moosonee - 103.1 per cent first dose, 92.8 second dose
- Smooth Rock Falls - 95.7 per cent first dose, 93.8 per cent second dose
- Timmins - 87 per cent first dose, 81.4 per cent second dose
As of Dec. 6, there had been 1,235 cases in the region where a variant of concern has been detected. That's an increase of 6 from last week's report.
When the numbers were pulled for the report, a total of 2,281 confirmed cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic. In the past week, there's been one new hospitalization, bringing the total number of hospitalizations to 126 people.
Of the total confirmed cases in the region since the start of the pandemic, 51.6 per cent are male and 48.2 per cent are female.
People 20 to 39 years make up the largest number of cases, with 804 people (35.3 per cent of all cases) being in that demographic. There have been 751 cases (32.9 per cent) in people ages 19 and under, 464 people (20.4 per cent of cases) between the ages of 40-59, 204 people (8.9 per cent) are between the ages of 60-79, and 58 people (2.5 per cent) are 80 and over.
For where people are located, 1,079 cases have been in Timmins; 288 in the area Matheson, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane and Smooth Rock Falls; 102 in the Kapuskasing area; 100 in the Hearst, Hornepayne area; 706 in the James and Hudson Bay region; and six are out of region.
Of the confirmed cases, 1,426 (62.5 per cent) were contacts of a case, 282 (12.4 per cent) were associated with an outbreak, 531 (23.3 per cent) had no known exposure, 20 (0.9 per cent) are travel-related, and the exposure of 22 (1 per cent) is under investigation.
The case fatality rate in the Porcupine Health Unit region is 1.4 per cent. The provincial rate is 1.6 per cent.
The test positivity rate for the region at the time of the report was 1.7 per cent, which is the highest of the seven health units in Northern Ontario. In Northern Ontario the positivity rate is 1.1 per cent and the provincial rate is 3.1 per cent.
This week's full local epidemiology report is available here. The vaccine rates can be found here.
