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Three quarters of COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated, says SAH

15 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Sault Ste. Marie, says APH website
20200526-SAH summer stock-DT-02
Sault Area Hospital. Darren Taylor/SooToday

Sault Area Hospital says that (approximately) 75 per cent of individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. 

Algoma Public Health's website says the hospital currently has 15 patients admitted with COVID-19. 

“Individuals with underlying medical conditions are more at risk of severe illness due to COVID-19 compared to individuals without underlying medical conditions. Vulnerable individuals rely on all of us to help stop the spread of disease,” said SAH spokesperson Brandy Sharp Young in an email to SooToday Thursday. “SAH is committed to ensuring a safe environment for our patients, visitors and health care workers. 

“We continue to assess the environment and make decisions regarding the management of COVID-19 by following best practice guidelines and advice from public health.”

Privacy concerns, lack of resources behind decision to not release immunization statuses: APH 

SooToday also approached Algoma Public Health (APH) for the immunization status of those hospitalized with COVID-19 at Sault Area Hospital, in addition to the vaccination status of all active COVID-19 cases in the Algoma region.

In its response, the health unit says that since the beginning of Algoma's fourth wave of the pandemic in early July, 64 per cent of COVID-19 cases were in people who were not fully immunized. The remaining 36 per cent of cases were in people who were fully immunized. 

But it won’t release any more information than that due to privacy concerns and a lack of resources at the health unit.  

“We do not provide individual-level information for cases, like vaccination status, in every [public service announcement], since that is considered personal health information and potentially identifiable at the individual level. We summarize [the] proportion of cases who are fully immunized [or] not and provide updates periodically,” said Dr. Jennifer Loo, medical officer of health for APH, in an email to SooToday Thursday. “Furthermore, vaccine status can take time to verify, and our small data team does not have the capacity to provide daily updates on this detail for each case.”

Loo says it’s important for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to take immediate action to curb the spread of COVID-19, in order to “prevent severe illness and death in our communities and protect health system capacity” due to the high transmission of COVID-19 in Sault Ste. Marie and surrounding areas. 

The health unit is issuing the following public health advice: 

  • Even if you are fully immunized, cut back on unnecessary activities where you have unmasked, face-to-face close contact with people you don't live with
  • Anyone who is sick, even with mild symptoms, must stay home and isolate away from others - regardless of whether you have received the COVID-19 vaccine
  • Get fully vaccinated.

There are currently 209 active COVID-19 cases in the Algoma Public Health region. Nine people have died from COVID-19 in the region since the beginning of the pandemic.


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James Hopkin

About the Author: James Hopkin

James Hopkin is a reporter for SooToday in Sault Ste. Marie
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