Middlesex-London Health Unit Marks One Year Since First COVID-19 Vaccine – London | The Canadian News

The London Middlesex region is marking a huge milestone on Thursday as the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered a year ago.

On December 31, 2020, Karen Dunn, RN, became the first recipient of a COVID-19 vaccine in London at the Western Fair Agriplex.

Since then, more than 881,000 doses have been administered locally, and children as young as five are now eligible to receive the vaccine.

“As we close the book in 2021 and head into 2022, we have every reason to be optimistic,” says Dr. Alex Summers, MLHU Acting Medical Health Officer.

“I think that we, as a community, as a province and as a country, when it comes to COVID-19, we are in a better position than a year ago.”

Summers said that with the number of cases increasing, the vaccine is helping people fight more serious infections and therefore helps keep the hospital from being overwhelmed.

On Thursday, the health unit reported its highest daily case count to date, with 263 new cases.

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Summers noted that COVID will likely never go away, but with the help of vaccines it will be more manageable and the pandemic will end.

London Mayor Ed Holder was also optimistic about what the coming year will bring, urging people to see how things have changed from where we were a year ago.

“There were a lot of things we didn’t know about COVID 12 months ago, even though we’d been on it for most of the year,” Holder says.

Holder was quick to point out that there is more financial support available to businesses than there was a year ago and, unlike last year, we are not at a deadlock.

Another thing to note was that vaccine eligibility was expanded to include children between the ages of five and 17.

More than 91 per cent of residents aged 12 and over in the London region have received at least one vaccine, while almost 89 per cent are twice vaccinated.

Just under 82 percent of residents aged five and over are fully vaccinated in London and Middlesex.

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