Chatham-Kent’s top doctor is less than thrilled with the vaccination rate amongst Chatham-Kent’s youth.
As of Friday’s update from public health, just 48% of those aged 12 to 17 have received their first shot, and only 15% are fully vaccinated.
“I’m disappointed, to be quite frank about it” Medical Officer Dr. David Colby says. “We are 13% points behind the province, and I’d like to see Chatham-Kent leading rather than playing catch-up. We are seeing a trend of not many first doses in the 12-17 year olds.”
Dr. Colby says the good news is that those who getting their first shot are coming back to get their second to ensure they are fully protected.
“The group that wants to get vaccinated is proceeding along just fine, but we need to motivate everybody else to get vaccinated and I don’t know whether they think the pandemic is over or whether they’re not really at risk for severe disease, neither of which is true.”
There are now four confirmed cases of the Delta variant in Chatham-Kent. Delta has been shown to be 67% more contagious than previous variants and 9% more likely to cause serious illness.
Dr. Colby boils down the risk to “a lot more contagious and a little nastier.”
