CORNWALL, Ontario – Today, Dr. Paul Roumeliotis from the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) provided a weekly COVID-19 update.
The presentation began with Dr. Roumeliotis showing local status updates and statistics:
“So you can see here that our hospitalizations (9) are slightly up. There is no ICU admission. We have a bit of an increase in our outbreaks (5), and our positivity (10.9%) is a bit lower than the provincial average,” said Dr. Roumeliotis.
Dr. Roumeliotis showed the trend in positivity over the course of the last month.
“The positivity rates have been up and down, although the daily was 10.9 per cent, the weekly average is about 12 to 13 per cent,” said Dr. Roumeliotis. “It’s been stable now since the last month or so, just to compare what we had in February, we were at 30 per cent plus.”
Dr. Roumeliotis explains that the slight increase in trends is happening across the province.
“Most of the health units have experienced some slight increases in cases, including ours, but very slight it’s not a big increase,” said Dr. Roumeliotis.
Dr. Roumeliotis highlighted the importance of increasing Cornwall’s third dose vaccination of 59.3 per cent.
Dr. Roumeliotis emphasized the importance of receiving a third dose by presenting a graph that compared differences of ICU admissions, hospitalisations, cases and deaths between an individual who is fully vaccinated, and an individual who is non-vaccinated.
“For any situation be it hospitalizations, deaths or ICU admissions, the non-vaccinated or partially vaccinated far outnumber the fully vaccinated,” said Dr. Roumeliotis. “Even though the vaccines may not prevent infection 100 per cent, they certainly prevent severe disease and hospitalization, and that’s why we need to boost up those third doses.”
On a local level, the EOHU is seeing a small surge of B2 Omicron, which is more transmissible, but does not cause more severe disease, and is prevented the same as the previous version of Omicron.
Dr. Roumeliotis explains that if people want to avoid restrictions, and continue to live normal lives they must get their third dose.
“To not have to go back to restrictions, which nobody wants. I’m asking you, please get your third dose if you haven’t got it yet. If you haven’t been vaccinated at all, get your doses,” said Dr. Roumeliotis. “It will help us prevent future shutdowns, and help us maintain our healthcare system.”
There will be an announcement over the next coming weeks on a fourth dose for the eldery, or individuals with chronic medical conditions, and likely a fifth dose for those in long-term care.
