Data error means completed Ontario COVID-19 vaccinations only half of what was reported

Ontario has been over reporting the number of people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the province, the Ministry of Health said Thursday.

Toronto ‘pauses’ new COVID-19 immunization clinic after province orders it closed

The error means that the number of people who have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines is only half of what the province has been logging.

“Rather than provide data on the number of people who have been fully vaccinated … officials inadvertently provided data on the number of doses administered to achieve full vaccination,” a spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement sent to media.

Data on the total number of doses administered was not affected, the spokesperson said.

The province reported yesterday that 96,549 people had received both doses of either vaccine so far. In reality, only 48,239 had. That is up to 55,286 this morning.

The vaccine data page has since been updated to accurately reflect the current figures, the spokesperson said.

The news comes as Ontario reported another 2,093 cases of COVID-19 and 56 more deaths of people with the illness.

It’s the first time since Sunday that the province recorded more than 2,000 additional infections. The seven-day average of daily cases, however, continued to steadily decline down to 2,128.

The new cases in today’s update include 700 in Toronto, 311 in Peel, 228 in York Region and 123 in Niagara Region.

Other public health units that saw double-digit increases were:

• Hamilton: 94.
• Durham: 85.
• Windsor-Essex: 67.
• Halton Region: 64.
• Waterloo Region: 56.
• Simcoe-Muskoka: 53.
• Ottawa: 45.
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 43.
• Middlesex-London: 37.
• Eastern Ontario: 30.
• Chatham-Kent: 25.
• Huron-Perth: 18.
• Southwestern: 16.
• Lambton: 15.
• Thunder Bay: 14.

There are currently 21,478 confirmed, active infections provincewide, down from a peak of 30,632 on Jan. 11. That figure has been trending downward as resolved cases consistently outpace new ones.

Ontario’s labs processed 64,664 test samples for the virus and reported a test positivity rate of 3.3 per cent — the lowest in five days.

According to the Ministry of Health, there were 1,338 people with COVID-19 in hospitals, down 44 from the day before. The number of people that were being treated in intensive care fell by 19 to 358, while the number that required ventilator decreased by 15, down to 276.

The 56 additional deaths push Ontario’s total COVID-19-linked death toll to 6,014.

Public health officials are scheduled to provide an update on revised COVID-19 modelling projections this afternoon.

Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, the co-chairman of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, will be on hand to present the update, the province said.

It has been two weeks since the provincial government implemented a stay-at-home order in a bid to halt surging transmission of the virus.

The province’s chief medical officer of health said earlier this week that it looks as though a provincewide “lockdown,” which began on Dec. 26, 2020, has contributed to a recent reduction in daily cases.

The last modelling update, outlined earlier this month, suggested that patients with COVID-19 in need of critical care could overwhelm Ontario’s health-care system if community transmission of the virus continued on pace.

Students in 4 more health units return to school next week

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said today that students in four more public health units have a green light to return to schools for in-person classes next week.

That’s about 280,000 students in the following health units:

• Middlesex-London.
• Ottawa.
• Southwestern.
• Eastern Ontario.

In a release, Education Minister Stephen Lecce wrote that the government agrees with the “growing consensus in the medical community” that returning to school is “essential to the wellbeing, development and mental health of children.”

The government has introduced some new safety measures in schools this winter — including masking for grades 1 to 3 — though debate continues about whether the measures are adequate.

The next wave of students, from Toronto, Peel, York Region, Windsor-Essex and Hamilton, are currently scheduled to return on Feb. 10.

Students in eleven other health units, including Halton and Durham regions and Simcoe-Muskoka, have not yet been told to expect when they’ll be able to return to schools.

CBC