THUNDER BAY – Despite making up an increasingly small portion of the population, those who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 account for the vast majority of recent cases in the Thunder Bay District.
Of about 180 COVID-19 cases reported between June 1 and Oct. 28, the unvaccinated made up 77.3 per cent, while only 14.9 per cent were fully vaccinated. The remaining 7.8 per cent were partially vaccinated, according to figures shared by the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
The numbers are even more lopsided when considering the unvaccinated make up an increasingly small portion of the population.
The TBDHU has the second-highest vaccination rates in the province, with 89 per cent of those 12 and up fully vaccinated as of Oct. 30. Over 93 per cent had received at least a first dose, according to the health unit.
The district passed the 50 per cent fully vaccinated mark in early July.
Of local breakthrough cases among vaccinated people, many occurred when they had prolonged exposure to someone with COVID-19, such as a household member, DeMille noted.
“We have seen people who are fully vaccinated [getting infected],” she said, but it’s not only much less common, their symptoms tend to be less severe.
“I don’t have the data on our hospitalizations, but certainly vaccinated people are much, much less likely to require hospitalization in general,” she said. “We’ve certainly seen [vaccinated] people with a fairly mild illness.”
This accords with provincial data.
Unvaccinated people have a seven-fold higher risk of symptomatic illness, a 17-fold higher risk of hospitalization with COVID-19, and 23-fold higher risk of being in the ICU, according to an Oct. 22 briefing from Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre said it couldn’t share local data over privacy concerns.
“Given the small number of COVID patients since September 2021 (11 in total), providing information on their vaccination status could be used to identify those patients and violate their privacy,” said a representative in an email.
The health unit has so far refrained from publishing data on the vaccination status of local COVID-19 cases over similar privacy concerns.
"We will review the publication of this information as we move forward, however it is important to note that there will always be a delay in this data and we would need to group together by time periods to protect individuals' privacy," said TBDHU director of corporate service Lance Dyll. "Our current low case numbers do create potential identifying information."
