Dr. Kit Young Hoon. Submitted by NWHU
With no active cases of COVID-19 (at time of publishing) heading into Step three of the province’s reopening plan today (Friday), our region’s top doctor feels good about loosening restrictions.
“I think we’re all very happy to be moving into Step three,” said Dr. Kit Young Hoon, Medical Officer of Health for the Northwestern Health Unit. “Our case numbers are low and our vaccination rates our similar to the province at this time, so I think that moving up to Step 3 is good for our general catchment area. I encourage people to take a moment to enjoy it and also just to continue to follow the restrictions.”
As with previous steps Dr. Young Hoon remains cautiously optimistic and still urges residents to consider the risk of the activities they chose to participate in, whether they’re fully vaccinated or not.
“The safest activities include things like outdoor activities with members of your household, small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated people, being physically close to a fully vaccinated person.”
Dr. Young Hoon adds while our vaccination rates our good, more people need to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to avoid a spike in cases this fall.
To date, over 103,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given in our region with 78.7% of those 18 years of age and older having one dose and 64.5% of area adults are fully vaccinated.
76.4% of those 12 years of age and older have at least one dose of the vaccine and 60.3% have two doses.
Vaccination rates and doses retrieved from NWHU website data July 15, 2021.
