Another technical glitch muddies vaccine rollout

Public health says pharmacy jabs not included in shot counts

— A technical glitch is preventing accurate reporting of COVID-19 vaccinations in the region.

Public health says it is unable to count shots given at local pharmacies. It is therefore under-reporting shots administered and under-reporting people who have received at least one dose, a number currently reported at 17.7 per cent of the population.

“The province is working on a solution,” said Sharon Ord, spokesperson for the regional task force that is rolling out vaccinations.

It’s unclear why regional public health can’t report pharmacy shots as other health units do. Health units have access to a provincial database that counts all vaccinations.

An example: Hamilton reports 10,864 shots given by pharmacists and family doctors by Monday. That’s eight per cent of all COVID-19 vaccinations achieved in that city.

This is not the only COVIDrelated technical glitch that Waterloo public health has struggled to overcome.

Some 2,900 residents who preregistered for vaccinations had text messages sent to them by public health blocked by their wireless provider.

Earlier in the pandemic, public health failed to include at least 46,721 COVID-19 test results in its counts. Officials blamed database disconnections. Missing test results were added at later dates.

The province released an accurate count in this region April 3, just as local pharmacies were starting to give shots. That count showed Waterloo Region was four days behind the Ontario vaccination pace after putting 94,375 shots into arms since December.