Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has thrown their support behind the provincial vaccination certificate announcement by Ontario premier Doug Ford on Wednesday.
“We are encouraged that the Provincial Government is taking additional steps to protect Ontarians against COVID-19 and increase vaccine uptake. While Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph has made substantial progress against the virus, we can and must do more – especially as children return to schools,” said Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum, associate medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health in an email.
Hours after Wednesday’s announcement of a vaccine certificate, modelling prepared by Ontario’s Science Advisory Table showed a worst-case scenario for Ontario with daily case counts reaching 9,000 by October.
The more optimistic scenario shows the case counts declining, with the daily number of cases dipping into the 500 range in October.
Key findings from the report said: “Vaccination offers substantial protection against severe health outcomes. We do not expect to see the same proportion of severely ill cases in the vaccinated. Among the unvaccinated, we do expect to see a rapid increase in the number of seriously ill people needing hospital care as workplaces and education re-open in September.”
The announcement from the Ford government comes less than a week after WDGPH announced it was looking into an alternative provincial vaccine certificate if the Ford government did not bring forward a comprehensive plan.
At the time, WDGPH supported a provincial approach to avoid regional differences, however, in the interim it was exploring how to utilize COVax vaccine receipts locally.
“We encourage every eligible resident to get vaccinated as soon as possible by visiting one of our local clinics. WDG Public Health has recommended that all members of the local business community develop vaccine policies for their workplaces. Today’s announcement will help local businesses do just that," a quote from WDGPH attributed to Tenenbaum said.
