If we have any hope of avoiding a fourth wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Wajid Ahmed believes we need to keep up vaccination efforts and public health measures.
"More recently in our third wave we basically did a pretty good job in avoiding it," says Dr. Ahmed, Medical Office of Health. "...Thanks to the high vaccination rate in our community and thanks to the community for following the public health measures."
Dr. Ahmed says the threat will continue to exist but we can do our best to protect ourselves.
"Because the pandemic is still raging in some parts of the world, because of the connectedness, so the threat will always be there and we can only prevent this threat by continuing to remember some of the things that we've been talking about all along," he says, adding, a very high vaccination rate will be key to avoiding a possible fourth wave of the pandemic.
"Even when things start to open up. we need to remember our responsibilities," says Dr. Ahmed. "The key responsibility continues to be if you're sick, stay home. Try to maintain your physical distancing as much as possible. But when we are talking about having those large gatherings and people coming in from different places, you have to be careful."
A total of 253, 253 people in Windsor-Essex (57.8 per cent) have been vaccinated with at least one dose, and 32, 356 people (7.4 per cent) have completed vaccination.
As of Friday, those aged 70 and older and people who received a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine on or before April 18 can book second doses at pharmacies or primary care settings.