Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health hit a major milestone in vaccine distribution on Thursday reaching 75 per cent of all eligible residents with two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Just a few weeks ahead of back to school, and perhaps just a matter of time before a full-blown fourth wave of the pandemic, three-quarters of people 12 and over in Guelph and area are now full vaccinated. So what now?

According to Public Health’s vaccine dashboard, 203,212 people in Guelph, Wellington, and Dufferin have been fully vaccinated, representing 75.3 per cent of people 12 years of age and older. The number of eligible people with one does is now 222,494 or 82.5 per cent. In Guelph proper, 81.1 per cent of eligible people are fully vaccinated while 88.3 per cent have received one shot.

Compared to the rest of Ontario, where just over 20 million vaccine doses have been administered so far, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph is slightly ahead of things. Slightly less than 82 per cent of eligible people in Ontario have received one dose while just over 73 per cent have received two doses.

In terms of looking at the local vaccination campaign by age group, people between 75 and 79 in the region are the most vaccinated with 95.5 per cent of people in that category who are all fully vaccinated, followed by people over 80 with 95 per cent even. The least vaccinated age groups are young people between 12 and 14, plus young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 at 59.3 per cent each. The 20-24 group is also struggling to get one shot with only 70 per cent of people in that category having received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

In terms of total population, 71.3 per cent of people in the region have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 65.1 per cent have been fully vaccinated. Children under 12 have yet to be approved to take any of the three approved Health Canada vaccines though approval is expected for Pfizer and/or Moderna sometime later in the fall when the companies present the findings from their clinical trials.

Speaking of school kids, Public Health also tracts the vaccination rate at area high schools, and presently students in the Wellington Catholic District School Board have a slightly higher rate of vaccination than the Upper Grand District Board; 68.4 per cent with two doses versus 64.4 per cent. Having said that, the most vaccinated school is Centennial CVI with 75.3 per cent, followed by Bishop Mac with 74.3 per cent, and Ross with 71.3 per cent. The least vaccinated high school in the region is the area’s only private school, Emmanuel Christian, at just 18.9 per cent of student who are fully vaccinated.

This latest vaccination milestone comes one day after the mass vaccination clinic at the Skyjack plant on Woodlawn Road closed, and one week before the remain clinics at the Alder Arena in Orangeville, the Centre-Wellington Community Sportsplex in Fergus, and the West End Recreation Centre here in Guelph all close. The clinic at the University Centre at the University of Guelph closed last week.

In terms of the current number of cases in the region, things seem to have stabilized after a big bump that occurred last weekend. The 7-day moving rate of confirmed cases has ticked back down slightly to 11.2 per cent, while the test positivity rate is still relatively high at 1.3 per cent. There were just two new cases on Thursday, and the number of active cases is now down to 38 after a hitting a recent high of 47 on Monday.