Waterloo Region COVID-19 vaccine numbers expected to drop on Friday with report change

Changes coming next Friday on the Waterloo Region COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force’s dashboard are expected to cause some metrics to drop, according to Vickie Murray.

The head of the task force told the Health Commission that it will use the 2020 estimate from Statistics Canada for the overall population, including non-residents living in the Waterloo Region.

“This will move us from the population denominator of 588,878 to the population denominator of 605,232,” explains Murray, as population growth will cause the overall percentage to decrease.

“We have taken the time to evaluate and analyze recent population data, and we are now ready to update our dashboard accordingly,” she added. “Population estimates are dynamic and constantly changing.”

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The other big change to be made on Friday will see stats broken down by year of birth rather than age.

“A person’s year of birth doesn’t change, but their age does,” says Murray. “So this keeps our age groups together as a cohort.”

She says these moves will bring most percentages down across the panel.

Murray told the Health Commission that the 18- to 29-year-old age group would fall sharply because it had previously been adjusted to exclude students from outside the Waterloo Region, including those from overseas.

“The change in how we report aid groups will reduce the value of vaccinations for the 12 to 17 year old age group and will increase vaccination for our oldest age groups,” she said.

“But we feel this more accurately reflects our immunization progress over time, which means using current up-to-date information.”