Province now reporting vaccinated vs. unvaccinated data in daily COVID-19 numbers

Ontario’s government unveiled updated data that shows vaccinated versus unvaccinated COVID-19 figures despite Tuesday’s numbers not adding up correctly.

The Health Ministry confirmed it has rearranged its daily reporting website and added new metrics, comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated daily cases and hospital admissions.

With the province reporting 321 new COVID-19 infections, the vaccination data shows that 267 of those new cases are in those without any vaccine protection, 54 infections were in people partially vaccinated, and 78 in those fully vaccinated.

That accounts for roughly 80 per cent of the cases in unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people.

As far as the case data is concerned, a spokesperson for Health Minister Christine Elliott says the misaligned numbers all have to do with valid Ontario health cards.

“Cases by vaccination status may not match the daily COVID-19 case count because records with a missing or invalid health card number cannot be linked,” spokesperson Alexandra Hilkene said in an email.

“Data reporting will continue to improve over time.”

For hospitalization and ICU, a source tells 680 NEWS it could be a few things. Hospitals are submitting this data to the province daily moving forward. This is being collected through two data sources with different extraction times and public reporting cycles for ICU data.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore says that the breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people tend to be milder. In a Toronto Star op-ed today, Moore writes that growing case counts won’t have the same meaning now as during previous waves due to high rates of vaccinations.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise again, if only slightly, several business groups are calling for a vaccine certificate system as a means to avoid another lockdown.

Premier Doug Ford has resisted calls from medical, political and business groups to implement a vaccine certificate system for non-essential activities, saying he doesn’t want a “split society.”

On Monday, minister Elliott’s spokesperson said that the process of simply showing a vaccine receipt should suffice.

“To date, this approach has been widely successful, with Ontario ranking as one of the world’s leading jurisdictions for population percentage to have received their first dose of the vaccine,” Hilkene wrote.

“Ontarians have the ability to download or print an electronic COVID-19 vaccine receipt through the provincial portal, or by calling the provincial booking line, should proof of vaccination be required in a certain setting.”

York Region’s top doctor revealed Monday that vaccine disparity leads to youth below 12 years old contracting COVID-19 through unvaccinated parents or guardians.

“We are seeing a resurgence of these COVID-19 cases in York Region with our case counts in recent days very similar to those we were experiencing at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic,” Dr. Karim Kurji told 680 NEWS in an interview on Monday.

Ontario’s vaccination data shows that younger age groups, such as those 12-and-older and others aged 18 to 29, lag compared to older demographics.

“Children, youth and young adults are being disproportionately impacted with 63 per cent of cases in the past week being under the age of 29,” Kurji says. “A majority of these cases are in unvaccinated individuals.”

Data shows the province administered 48,000 vaccines through Monday, 38,000 of which were second shots and 10,416 were first doses.

Through Monday, 81 per cent of adults 18-plus have received at least one dose, while 73.4 per cent of Ontario’s adult population is fully vaccinated.

The seven-day average is up to 306 cases per day. Tuesday’s numbers are based on nearly 16,500 tests.

With files from 680 NEWS reporter Irene Preklet and business editor Richard Southern