The province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health says there has been great vaccine uptake so far.
COVID-19 vaccination appointments for people between 30 and 34 opened Monday.
Dr. Robert Strang says everyone 12 and over will be eligible by the end of next week, there aren’t any vaccines approved for use on children younger than that in our country.
Dr. Strang says uptake in the older age groups has been huge.
“65 and above, over 90 per cent of them who are eligible in that age group have gotten vaccinated, that’s phenomenal,” he says. “75 per cent of the entire population should be our minimum standard. We need to go more than that. Ideally, we’d have every single person who can get vaccinated to get vaccine, but our minimum should be 85 per cent of those who are eligible need to get vaccinated.”
Dr. Strang says vaccinations are the only way to get out of this pandemic.
He issued a challenge to young people, who he says don’t typically come out in large numbers to get vaccinated.
“My challenge to those younger age groups is to meet that minimum 85 target,” he says. “That is the way, if you want to have a more open summer, if you want to socialize, if your want to go to concerts, if you want to travel, so what you can do to make that happen by getting vaccinated.”
He announced 91 new cases Monday, 66 in Central Zone, 17 in Eastern Zone, five in Northern Zone and three in Western Zone.
Dr. Strang says 74 people are in hospital and 21 more are in ICU.
