CORNWALL – The Eastern Ontario Health Unit is adding 28,000 vaccination appointments for clinics in June.
The appointments, many of which were added late Thursday afternoon (May 20th), will help get many more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine into arms of residents in the region.
Included with the new appointments and increased vaccine supply are two new clinic dates in South Dundas.
Both clinics, June 17th and June 24th, will be held at the Morrisburg Arena. That location hosted the first COVID-19 vaccination clinic in South Dundas on May 10th where approximately 600 people received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The new clinics are for first dose recipients only. Anyone age 18 or older can attend with an appointment now that the Ontario COVID-19 vaccination appointment system has expanded eligibility.
The EOHU is also in the process of organizing family vaccination clinics for youth between the ages of 12 and 17, and eligible family members, beginning in June. These clinics will be separate from the regular vaccination stream. School boards, the Ministry of Education, and the health unit are working out details on that plan.
Local numbers
Fourteen new COVID-19 infections were added to the region’s tally in the past 24-hours, but overall active cases continue a slow decline. As of the May 21st update, there are 177 active infections in the EOHU. South Dundas has four active cases, North Dundas seven, South Stormont eight, North Stormont eight, and the City of Cornwall has 44.
The seven day average of new infections per 100,000 people has decreased to 34.5, which would place the EOHU region in the Orange zone under the currently suspended provincial restriction framework.
Ten people are currently hospitalized, three of those are in intensive care.
The reproductive rate of infections has gone up, but remains below the threshold of one at 0.90. This means that for every 100 new COVID-19 infections, there will be 90 secondary infections.
Local statistics will be unavailable until Tuesday, May 25th due to the Victoria Day long weekend.