Total of 107 active COVID-19 cases and 302 total number of recorded COVID-19 related deaths as of Tuesday, Oct. 19

Photo by Darien Funk

As of Tuesday, Oct. 19, eight new COVID-19 cases were logged by health officials in Waterloo Region, bringing the total number of active cases to 107. Two deaths were also logged bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths to 302. 

There are currently four outbreaks in the region and six people are hospitalized for COVID-19 related reasons.

Province-wide there were 328 new COVID-19 cases recorded on Tuesday and four deaths. 

87.5 per cent of eligible residents in Ontario have received at least one Health Canada approved COVID-19 vaccine dose and 83.2 per cent are fully vaccinated. 

Pfizer has recently asked Health Canada to approve their Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, now known as Comirnaty, for children aged five to 11 years old.

They submitted clinical trial data for child-sized doses (which are one-third of the size given to those aged 12 and up) earlier this month and asked for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“Health Canada will only authorize the use of Comirnaty if the independent and thorough scientific review of all the data included in the submission showed that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the potential risks in this age group,” a statement from Health Canada said.

Ontario is also being urged to track the type of vaccines that are associated with breakthrough cases of COVID-19 to evaluate Ontario’s vaccine strategy.

“It’s important for us to collect that because we have to say, was our strategy good? How does it compare to other countries?” said Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre.
None of the vaccines are 100 per cent effective at preventing infections but they protect against severe illness, hospitalization, and death, so breakthrough cases are not vaccine failures.

Leave a Reply