More than 455,000 people in the Kingston region have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Now health officials say they are using the summer months, with low infection rates, to look to the future that fall may entail, and are asking those still eligible to be vaccinated to do so.
Read more: Kingston Health Sciences Center to unsubscribe from the COVID-19 field site
“Large mass immunization clinics, mobile clinics, car clinics and small primary care clinics that make their own vaccine,” said Brian Larkin of KFL & A Public Health.
Dr. Gerald Evans, an expert on infectious diseases, says those who are still eligible for a third and fourth dose should take advantage and curl up during the summer months with little infection.
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“Now in 2022, even though you might still have COVID, you’re probably not going to be very sick. You’re less likely to transmit it, and ultimately that’s one of the ways to control the pandemic,” Evans added.
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He expects another wave of COVID-19 to arrive in late October through early November and that reinforcement may be available for those under 60 who are not yet eligible for a fourth dose.
Read more: Kingston, Ont. The COVID assessment center is cutting the schedule for the summer
“The best thing is a few more years watching the increase in cases, getting reinforcements to control things and ultimately get out of it, being one more coronavirus that tends to cause a respiratory infection and the worst case is “a new variant, where all the potential possibilities exist to have a large increase in cases and we hope that there will not be much more serious diseases,” said Evans.
Public Health says they are still waiting for directions from the province on what will come this fall.
“We hope to see more age groups and younger age groups eligible for more doses or boosters, but when those ages begin, we haven’t confirmed that yet,” Larkin said.
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The last 18 months of vaccines paving the way for the new normal could mean an annual boost of COVID along with the annual flu vaccine.
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