COVID-19 vaccination rates in New Westminster are continuing to creep upwards.
As of Sept. 14, 83% of residents aged 12 and up were fully vaccinated with two doses, according to B.C. Centre for Disease Control data. The vaccination rate is the same for residents aged 18 and up, and higher – 86% – for residents aged 50 and up.
Those percentages are up just slightly over last week, when vaccination rates stood at 82% for the 12+ and 18+ age groups, and 85% for 50+.
First-dose vaccination rates have stalled at 89% for all age groups.
Other coronavirus-related markers in the city are continuing to climb.
New Westminster's daily case rate climbed to 10 per 100,000 for the week of Sept. 7 to 13, up from 8 in the previous week.
Test positivity reached 8% for all publicly funded tests, up from 6% the previous week.
VACCINATION KEY TO STOPPING SPREAD
B.C.'s public health officials have continually stressed the importance of vaccination in bringing the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
“This has become a pandemic that is spreading rapidly amongst pockets of people that are unvaccinated," provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said at an Aug. 31 briefing.
Henry reiterated the importance of vaccination for protecting B.C.'s children; the province has 600,000 children aged 11 or younger who are not yet eligible for vaccination.
“Those are the people that the rest of us need to protect by stopping transmission of this virus and by getting vaccinated ourselves," she said.
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