More than 8K doses of COVID vaccine administered to local kids 5-11

Vaccination efforts are once again ramping up in Waterloo Region as kids as young as five recently became eligible and more people will soon be able to get a booster shot. 

Vickie Murray is director of regional vaccine services and spoke during Friday's community COVID-19 briefing. 

She said Friday's online vaccination dashboard update at 1:30 p.m. will show 83.11 per cent of eligible local residents have gotten a first dose and 79.34 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Murray said 24,133 third doses have also been administered to date. 

She noted that as of the end of Thursday, a total of 8,613 doses of vaccine had been administered to local kids between the ages of five and 11. 

She estimated that approximately 30 per cent of kids in that age group have received, or have an appointment booked, for a vaccine.

Murray said there are still approximately 12,100 appointments available for first and second doses at regional clinics from Dec. 3 to Dec. 12, and another 26,800 appointments from Dec. 13 to Jan. 20.

The province recently announced it would lower the eligibility age to 50 for booster shots beginning Dec. 13.

Murray said there are more than 21,600 spots available at regional clinics for third doses of vaccine from Dec. 13 to Jan. 20. That's in addition to the 12,765 third dose appointments that are already booked. 

Murray added work is underway to begin administering third doses to local dialysis patients on Monday morning. There's also plans for third dose vaccination clinics at local hospitals for hospital staff.