Grey-Bruce is no longer a provincially designated COVID-19 hot spot, according to the health unit there.
“We thank everyone for their continued support as we collectively work together to bring numbers down,” Dr. Ian Arra, medical officer of health for the Grey Bruce Health Unit, said in a news release Wednesday.
“If the weekly pattern of new cases continues to decrease or remain stable thru the coming long weekend, we will be in a good position to move to full Step 3. Until then, we are asking the public in Grey-Bruce to stay the course with the modified Step 3,” he added.
Arra explained that the health unit has taken a two-pronged approach to control the surge — through aggressive vaccine rollout programming as well as efficient case and contact management.
“Over the past 16 months, the team was able to bring down every surge keeping the number of new cases to a manageable level of less than five per day with many days without any new cases,” Arra said.
The delta variant was first identified in Grey-Bruce in early June and the province declared the region to be a delta hot spot July 8.
“Our experience with the delta variant is an unfortunate proof of how extremely efficient and effective it is at transmitting, and at causing severe disease leading to hospitalizations and deaths,” Arra said.
The Grey-Bruce health unit reports that the majority of transmission during the latest surge was found in individuals who were not fully vaccinated.
Over the past few weeks, the health unit has increased the number of pop-up vaccine clinics in the region, something Arra says will continue with drop-in clinics being available every day.
“We have reached the vaccine coverage target for the regular strains of COVID-19. However, with delta now the dominant variant, we need to reach a higher vaccine target of 90 per cent coverage," Arra said. "Therefore, we are ramping up the targeted vaccination strategy adding more pop-up and drive-thru clinics."
Vaccine appointments can be made through the provincial online booking system for COVID-19 vaccinations at ontario.ca/bookvaccine.
All Ontarians aged 18 years or older are eligible to re-book their second-dose appointments for an earlier time.
