50,000 Windsor-Essex residents remain unvaccinated against COVID-19

A look inside the former Sears building at Devonshire Mall May 28,2021(Michelle Maluske/CTV Windsor)

Windsor, Ont. -

The first dose vaccination rate has hit a bit of a ‘wall’, according to the CEO of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.

Nicole Dupuis says about 50,000 eligible Windsor-Essex residents are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

"We've sort of, I think hit a bit of a cliff or a wall and still having such a large percentage of our population. Am I surprised we've not moved it a little more than we have? Yeah I suppose I would say I am," says Dupuis.

She adds a tremendous amount of work, effort and resources has gone into the rollout and strategies on vaccine education.

"I know I've been asked multiple times, what else can be done? And I think we are all struggling to sort of figure out, what strategies haven't we used and what additional strategies can we use to really reach individuals within our community and those who are still kind of hesitate or unvaccinated," says Dupuis.

The health unit is encouraging all eligible residents to be vaccinated, especially since the new Omicron variant was detected in the region on Tuesday.

Despite the slight stall of first doses, on Monday Dupuis indicated that third dose booster rollout was going well.

WINDSOR-ESSEX COUNTY RESIDENTS VACCINATED

• 340,745 WEC residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine
• 20,326 WEC residents have only received 1 dose of a vaccine
• 320,419 WEC residents have received both doses of a vaccine
• 57,338 WEC residents have received a 3rd dose/booster shot of a vaccine. Please note: Third doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine are available for prioritized populations. Further information is available at https://www.wechu.org/cv/clinics#third-dose.
• A total of 718,502 doses have been administered to WEC residents
• 82.6% of WEC residents 5+ have received at least 1 dose
• 77.7% of WEC residents 5+ are fully vaccinated.