Demand for COVID-19 vaccine crashes hotlines and websites

Hamilton officials say they're sorry for the difficulties local residents have faced trying to register for COVID-19 vaccines through a city-provided hotline.

The phone system has the capacity to take 150 calls at once, but has been frequently receiving more than that since launching on Saturday, leading to busy signals and long waits, said Hamilton medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson.

"We are very sorry for the angst this has been causing," said Dr. Richardson during Monday's media briefing. "We have added more staff and extended the hours."

The city is also making changes to how bookings are done to reduce the need for staff to call residents back, freeing up more of their time. The hotline is currently only for residents who are 85 years old and older, the city's first age group to be offered the vaccine. It was launched in advance of a provincial online booking system that is expected to roll out mid-month.

"Even though (the hotline) is clunky, it is still faster now doing this than waiting for the provincial system," said Mayor Fred Eisenberger in the briefing.

The hotline can be reached at 905-974-9848, option 7.

A similar situation occurred Monday in Brant County, where so many people wanted to book their vaccine appointment that the health unit's website crashed. "The number of visitors looking to book appointments unfortunately overloaded the site," said spokesperson Ryan Spiteri.

"We are working closely with our IT team to find the best solution to this problem," he said in an email. "We'd like our residents to know that we are doing the best we can under the current circumstances and we thank them for their patience."

In Hamilton, vaccinations are now also available to workers and residents in the city's shelter system through mobile clinics that began Saturday and will run until Tuesday. Clients can make vaccination arrangements with the shelters directly, while workers can register through the community healthcare worker portal at hamilton.ca/VaccineRegistration. City officials said Monday they expect about 500 people to be vaccinated through this program by the end of Tuesday.

As of the end of day Sunday, a total of 36,513 vaccines had been administered in Hamilton 11,298 at mobile clinics and 25,215 at the fixed clinic at Hamilton Health Sciences. The city says it has fully vaccinated more than 15,000 people.

Variant cases rising

As of Monday, Hamilton Public Health Services reported three confirmed cases of the COVID-19 variant that originated in the United Kingdom, B.1.1.7. Another 57 cases have screened positive for variants of the virus. Variant cases have been screened positive in the outbreak at Unit B3 of the Juravinski Hospital, which was reporting two patient cases as of Sunday.

Overall, Hamilton saw 54 new cases reported Monday, and no new deaths. There were 449 active cases of COVID-19 in the city with a weekly rate of 56 new cases per 100,000.

Since March 2020, a total of 283 people in Hamilton have died after contracting COVID-19. The total number of resolved cases now stands at 9,620.

There are currently 25 COVID-19 outbreaks in the city.

On Monday, city emergency operations centre director Paul Johnson said the city is opening a second isolation centre for people experiencing homelessness, at the Central Memorial Recreation Centre, near Stinson Street and Victoria Avenue South. Outbreaks are currently ongoing at several shelters in the city, and the current isolation centre at Bennetto Community Centre is at capacity, he said. It is expected to be open for two to three weeks and can house 30 people.

Haldimand-Norfolk

The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit is reporting 31 active cases of COVID-19, a drop of two since Sunday. The area has seen 1,428 cases throughout the pandemic. Of those, 1,353 have recovered. The local public health unit has linked the virus to 39 deaths.

In a media briefing on Monday, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, medical officer of health, said the health unit has finished vaccinatingworkers and residents at long-term care and retirement homes. This week, the unit will begin vaccinating people who are 80 years old and older.

"We are trying to identify (them) by working through family physicians," he said. "Patients who are eligible will be receiving phone calls. At least some people will start to get the vaccine this week (but) it will take many weeks. We ask people to wait for their phone call."

He added that the unit is working on a "system" to identify people who don't have family doctors. He also said peopleaged 75and older will be the next group to be vaccinated.

Six Nations

At Six Nations of the Grand River, there were 116 active cases as of Monday, including two new cases. This is the highest number of active cases the community has seen since the start of the pandemic, Six Nations Health Services said in a news release Monday.

"Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council, the emergency control group, Six Nations Health Services, and Ohsweken Public Health would like to stress the urgency of this situation to the community," the release said, urging community members to continue following public health advice such as avoiding gatherings, staying home and even wearing masks within the household "as a preventative measure to protect your high-risk family members.

"If community members are awaiting test results and have been in contact with a positive case, the rest of the household should also be isolating, while also trying to isolate from each other where possible."

The community has seen 365 cases of COVID-19, and currently has four community members in hospital.

As of last Tuesday, the community's rate of cases per 100,000 was 147, nearly triple that of Hamilton and double that of Toronto.

"Our healthcare workers are overwhelmed," the release said.

Brant

Brantford and Brant County have a combined46 active cases as of Monday, an increase of one case since the previous day. Five new cases were reported, contributing to the county's total of 1,485 cases. There have been 12 deaths. The area has seen two variant cases, but has not identified the specific variant.

No one is currently hospitalized with COVID-19. There have been 7,944 vaccination doses given in Brant, with 2,526 people completely vaccinated.

Niagara

Niagara Region is reporting 14 new COVID cases and eight resolved cases on Monday. The region has 270 total active cases.

The region's total case count is 8,597, and it has seen 369 deaths.

There is one new outbreak in Niagara as of Monday, and 14 total active outbreaks.

Niagara Region Public Health has administered 10,652 vaccine doses and has finished vaccinating at long-term care homes and high-risk retirement homes.

Halton

Halton Region is reporting 35 new COVID cases on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 9,510. Those numbers include 251 active cases and 196 deaths.

Of 75 variant cases detected by screening, 13 have been confirmed to be variants of concern.

The region has eight ongoing outbreaks, including one at West Oak Village long-term care home declared Friday.