{"id":31690,"date":"2022-07-28T19:19:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T23:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31690"},"modified":"2022-08-04T18:09:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T22:09:19","slug":"covid-19-vaccines-for-youngest-population-available-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/covid-19-vaccines-for-youngest-population-available-thursday\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 vaccines for youngest population available Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COVID-19 vaccines for children aged six-months to five years will roll out this Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 8 a.m. on July 28, parents and caregivers can book vaccines for their kids through the Provincial Booking Portal, York Region Public Health (York.ca\/COVID19) or by calling Access York at 1-877-464-9675.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know many of you have been eager to get your kids vaccinated, so thank you for being patient,\u201d said Dr. Barry Pakes, York Region\u2019s Medical Officer of Health, in his bi-weekly update on the local COVID situation Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re working with our healthcare partners to make sure we\u2019re prepared for vaccinating this age group here in York Region. This dose for young children will be important for children who are immunocompromised or otherwise vulnerable but also for those who are in daycare or group environments on a regular basis or who have vulnerable household members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone over aged 12 is now eligible for a fourth dose or second booster in Ontario. The messaging around this dose, \u2018available but not strongly recommended for younger people\u2019, has been confusing. Many people have been asking if they need the fourth dose now or if they should wait until the fall. If you are over 60, the answer is yes, you should get a fourth dose now. If you have a chronic condition or an immunocompromising condition, or live or work with someone vulnerable, the answer is also yes \u2013 you should get a fourth dose as soon as you can. Almost everyone else can certainly benefit from a fourth dose during this second wave, but if you had your third dose in the last five months or if you\u2019ve had COVID in the last three months, you may consider waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest vaccine developments come as York Region experiences a surge in hospitalizations related to COVID-19 and the current seventh wave of the virus. While Dr. Pakes says the latest wave \u201chopefully may be peaking shortly,\u201d wastewater signals indicate that COVID-19 is now as high as it was during the peak of the sixth wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHospitalizations across Ontario have risen quite dramatically over the last two weeks to 1,500 COVID cases in hospitals,\u201d said Dr. Pakes. \u201cIn York Region, hospitalized COVID cases have doubled over the last month. We have all heard how our hospital emergency rooms and in-patient wards are overwhelmed both because of these case counts and because of ongoing health human resource issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile these challenges are system-wide there are things you can do to make a difference. You can contribute to preventing this problem from worsening. We know that the individual and population-level protection of the COVID-19 vaccine is dramatically increased by a third or booster dose. It is clear that the MRNA COVID vaccines are really three-dose vaccines, not two-dose vaccines. If you or someone you know has not yet had their third or first booster dose, please walk in or make an appointment at a York Region Public Health Vaccine Clinic as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is \u201csome urgency\u201d in getting a fourth dose\/second booster sooner rather than later, he added, because not only will it provide protection but it will dovetail with a new vaccine which is \u201clikely to be released this fall\u201d offering better protection against Omicron variants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be a three-month interval between the bivalent vaccine and your fourth dose, so if you get your fourth dose now it will likely put you in a good position to get the bivalent vaccine when it is available,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom a public health perspective, we\u2019re still focused on getting the message out that everyone needs a third dose. At the community level this is key. The fourth dose is a good idea for most and the vaccine for young children is something you will want to seriously consider to protect your child and those that they interact with from infection and severe infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know we\u2019re all trying to enjoy our summer and to gather in ways we weren\u2019t able to in previous years. Please don\u2019t forget to always have a mask with you just in case. Although it is not mandatory, masking is a reasonable and easy defence against getting infection yourself or transmitting it to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know it is important for everyone\u2019s mental health and social wellbeing to see friends and family, but please remain home if you are ill and take COVID-19 symptoms seriously. Even as we all look forward to this wave peaking and declining shortly, we know that the fall will likely bring with it another surge of COVID-19 as well as other respiratory infections. The more we can do to reduce the burden of COVID-19 now, the better the fall will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MONKEYPOX UPDATE
Last week, the World Health Organization declared Monkeypox a \u201cpublic health emergency of international concern\u201d and Dr. Pakes says the virus is \u201cdefinitely present\u201d in York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, monkeypox vaccine is now available in York Region for some specific populations who are at risk. To see if you\u2019re eligible, visit York.ca\/monkeypox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKnow that monkeypox is transmitted in a very different way than COVID-19, predominantly through close or intimate contact,\u201d said Dr. Pakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 vaccines for children aged six-months to five years will roll out this Thursday. As of 8 a.m. on July 28, parents and caregivers can book vaccines for their kids through the Provincial Booking Portal, York Region Public Health (York.ca\/COVID19) or by calling Access York at 1-877-464-9675. \u201cWe know many of you have been eager […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8f8","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 09:27:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}