Public health releases plan to give COVID-19 vaccine priority to Hamilton BIPOC residents

Hamilton public healthreleased its plan to prioritize people of colour in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

It says people of colour who are 18 and older, andlive in postal codes L9C, L8W, L8L, L8N and L9Kwill get priority.

It will also operate a clinic at theRestoration House on Vine Street from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The clinic will be open for people of colour in the postal codes above.

The vaccinationsare appointment only and people willneed to arrive with proof of address.

This comes after public healthtried and failed to get them priority access to appointmentson the weekend.

It also follows pressure from the group advising public healthtoprioritizeracialized, disabled and low-income residents.

City data showednearly half of all COVID-19 cases in Hamiltonself-identify as a member of a racialized community, but people of colourmake up less than a quarterof the city'stotal population.

127 new cases in Hamilton

Hamilton is reporting 127new daily cases of COVID-19 on Friday.

The city now has a total of 1,905 active cases, which is 260 more than Thursday.

There are also 138 people in hospital with the virus.

Hamilton's per cent positivity rate is 7.9per cent. To put that into context, at three per cent, public health can no longer keep up with full contact tracing.

The city's reproductive rate is at 1.09, which means the overall number of new cases in the region is growing.

There have been 16,113total cases since the pandemic started.

Public health says 350 people who had COVID-19 have died and 84.4per cent of cases have been marked as resolved.

3 new outbreaks, 1 with variants of concern

There are 48 total outbreaks in the city, three of which are newaccording to the city website, including:

• Mission Services Shelter Overflow site inEast Hamilton with one patroncase.
• First Class Children's Centre with two staff cases (variant of concern was detected).
• Beth Tikvah Group Home on Main Street with one patron case.

Of the 48 outbreaks, 41 include variants of concern. The B117 variant first seen in the U.K. accounts for all but two of those outbreaks so far.

The outbreak atNational Steel Car on600 Kenilworth Ave N. ballooned from five cases on Thursday to 16 staff infections on Friday.

Shopper's Drug Mart employeetests positive

A staff memberat the Shoppers Drug Mart on 1599 Upper James Street has tested positive according to Loblaw.

The company says the last day the team memberworked was on April 16.

29.8% of eligible people vaccinated

The city says it has administered167,529doses of vaccine, which is29.8per cent of those who can get immunized.

Some of the populations with the lowest rates of vaccination include adults receiving chronic home care at 11 per cent, adults aged 55 to 59-years-old at 34 per cent, and essential caregivers in long-term care and retirement homes at 24 per cent.

Brant

The county of Brant and Brantford are reporting 55new cases.

Brant currently has 304active cases and 13people are in hospital.

The latest update puts the county's overall confirmed case count at 2,528. Seventeenpeople have died.

There have been 44,862vaccine doses administered so far in the county.

Haldimand-Norfolk

Health officials in Haldimand-Norfolk reported 32 new cases of COVID-19 and one new death on Friday.

The counties currently have a total of 304active cases and there have been 2,122infections since March 2020.

Forty-one deaths have been linked to the virus.

Parkview Meadows Christian Retirement Village has an outbreak with two infected staff members.

Two workers atReal Canadian Superstore on 125 Queensway East also have the virus according to Loblaw. They last worked on April 14 and April 20.

There have been 34,800immunizations.

Halton

Another 126 people in Halton are known to have COVID-19 on Friday, fora total of 14,092 casessince the start of the pandemic. Overall, 209people have died and 12,982are marked as resolved.

Of Halton's total cases, 2,892have been a COVID-19 variant.

As for Burlington, 31 more people are known to have COVID-19, for a total of 259active cases. Since last March, 3,456people have tested positive for the virus (580were variants), of which 3,145cases are resolved and 52have died.

Niagara

There are 189 new coronavirus cases in the Niagara Region. One more person has also died, for a total of 387deaths.

The region has now recorded a total of 12,863 cases of COVID-19 and 2,331of those are active.

Niagara public health has so far administered 152,504vaccination doses, which accounts for 29.4percent of the regional population. Niagara Health has administered 78,429 doses.

Six Nations

Six Nations of the Grand Riverhas recorded 28active cases of COVID-19.There have been 476total cases and 438 are resolved. Ten people have died.

There have been 11B117 cases, and 10 more cases that screened positive as avariantof concern require confirmation.

Six Nations is in alert level black of its colour-coded framework.