Meantime, an outbreak at Lambton College grows

About 34 per cent of eligible Lambton residents have now had their first vaccine.

Lambton Public Health says 40,103 people have been vaccinated including 2,340 who have had both doses.

Dr. Sudit Ranade told Lambton County councillors this morning public health is getting a steady supply of about 5,000 doses per week, however the mass vaccination clinic has been scaled back to three days a week. He says it is more efficient to deliver the available doses in three days.

The clinic has the capacity to deliver 2,500 per day.

Vaccination rates in Ontario seemed to soar with 136,695 people reportedly getting a jab Tuesday. Some experts say some of these people would have been vaccinated Monday but the data was held up because the delay in reporting due to the Rogers blackout. In all, 4.13 million people have had their first COVID-19 dose.

A number of data points from public health show a downward trend in the pandemic in Lambton. The region now has 59 cases of COVID-19 for every 100,000 people – that’s down from 68 last week. However it is still in the red or grey lockdown region of the provincial reopening framework.

Officials say 1.9 per cent of the tests being done are now positive; that’s down from 2.8 per cent last week.

While there are indications of improvement, there were 17 new cases reported today, including more people ill at Lambton College Residence. There are now five students who are COVID-19 positive.

A third outbreak was declared April 20 in a workplace – with five people COVID-19 positive. It’s the second workplace outbreak; the other has eight people with COVID-19.

Across the province another 4,212 people tested positive for COVID-19. Thirty-two have died. There were 2,335 people in hospital and 790 in the intensive care units.