The number of active COVID-19 cases in Chatham-Kent is holding steady at nine, but at least one of those cases has now been confirmed as being the Delta variant.
"Just one so far," said Chatham-Kent's Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby Tuesday morning. "We're treating all of our cases as if they are the Delta variant because that seems to be predominant in a lot of places."
The local public health unit reported one new case Tuesday along with one more resolved case.
When it comes to vaccinations, 75 per cent of adults 18+ in Chatham-Kent have received one dose, and 55 per cent have received two. Dr. Colby said they're still focused on getting more young people vaccinated.
"For our youth age 12 to 17, 48 per cent have had one dose, 9 per cent have had two doses," said Dr. Colby. "We're a little concerned about that one, I don't want to be negative, but that's almost 15 points behind the provincial average, so we have some catching up to do."
When it comes to vaccine mixing, Dr. Colby doesn't agree with the World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist.
On Monday, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan advised against people mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines from different manufacturers, but Dr. Colby said the early studies show that vaccine mixing is very effective, and believes Dr. Swaminathan is just being overly cautious.
"The two main vaccines that we're using, Moderna and Pfizer, are so close in composition, and use exactly the same technology, they target the same pike protein on the coronavirus. They're really interchangeable," said Dr. Colby. "If that's the way we behave with everything in the world, progress would never be made. You have to take your best shot based on what we know and what we believe."
Dr. Swaminathan later posted on social media that "individuals should not decide for themselves" to mix vaccine doses, but that "public health agencies can, based on available data."
https://twitter.com/doctorsoumya/status/1414657053180809224
