Chatham-Kent's top health officials said there's no confirmed cases of the Delta variant in the area yet but there are some cases being tested to determine if they are the highly transmissible variant.
Chatham-Kent Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby said some could be travel cases currently under quarantine and he's worried about that.
"I don't have any confirmed Delta yet but I have some that I'm treating as suspicious," said Colby.
Colby said he's optimistic that the COVID-19 vaccines will work well against the virus to protect the public from getting sick. He added that annual COVID-19 booster shots are likely in the cards but not until well into the future.
The doctor noted it's difficult to predict how well the vaccines will work to protect people from new, up-and-coming dominant variants.
"The viruses that were likely to see arising are going to the ones that find it easy to jump from one person to another," he said. "On the other side of that coin, if the virus kills its host, like wrecking your own house, that's a dead-end for a virus. Viruses not only tend to evolve to be more transmissible but also tend to evolve to be less deadly."
Chatham-Kent Public Health reported no new cases on Thursday and one less resolved case for a new total of eight active cases. Colby said the removal of the resolved case was just a clean-up or correction of COVID-19 data.
The local health unit also reported that almost half of the adult population in Chatham-Kent are fully vaccinated. It is estimated that 49 per cent of those 18 and older have received two doses and 74 per cent of that group have one dose. Local public health officials said 47 per cent of the area's youth 12-17 have gotten at least one shot.
Dr. Colby said the overwhelming majority of COVID-19 cases in Chatham-Kent have been people who have not been vaccinated.
He also noted that we still don't know how long the protection from a vaccine lasts. Colby said that issue is being studied and that information should be forthcoming.
