1 in 9,900 Canadians showing “serious” reaction to vaccines; Ontario reports over 1,700 new COVID-19 cases, 18 deaths

March 21, 2021NOW Staff

A photo of a physical distancing COVID-19 sign on a school fence

1:40 pm According to national data, some 2,209 Canadians have reported adverse events following immunization with COVID-19 vaccines. But only 287 of those – or 1 in 9,900 doses administered in Canada so far – were considered serious, such as a severe allergic reaction.

In a statement released Sunday, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam says the numbers on adverse side effects include “medical events that occurred following immunization, but not necessarily related to the vaccine or the immunization process.”

More than 670,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered this past week and more than 3.68 million doses in total in Canada since March 19.

Earlier this week, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended expanding the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after a dozen European countries paused their rollout of the vaccine over blood clots in about 30 recipients.

On that front, Tam says that “Based on the assessment of the evidence to date, it has been determined that vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots. However, it is possible that the vaccine may be associated with very rare but serious cases of blood clots associated with thrombocytopenia (i.e. low levels of blood platelets).”

Tam says that while vaccines are proving effective in containing the spread of the coronavirus in high-risk populations, young adults and variants of the virus represent an increasingly high proportion of cases. As of March 18, a total of 4,499 variants of concern have been reported in Canada. And overall, infection rates nationally are highest among young adults 20-39 years of age.

Tam warns the growth of the virus in “more mobile and socially-connected adults presents an ongoing risk for spread into high-risk populations and settings.”

Ontario reports over 1,700 new COVID-19 cases, 18 deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,791 new cases of COVID-19 and 18 new deaths. Active cases have now jumped to 14,230 in the province, back to levels we saw at the beginning of February. There are currently 760 people in hospital from COVID, with 305 people in intensive care, including 186 on ventilators.

The province reported an additional 57 cases of the B117 variant, bringing the case count to 1,287 province-wide.

There were 1,829 new cases reported on Saturday, 1,745 on Friday and 1,553 on Thursday. The seven-day rolling average is up at 1,538.

Meanwhile, there was a dip in the number of vaccinations administered over the last 24 hours, with the 40,823 doses administered lower than the 60,000 that have been administered on average over the past few days. A total of 1,521,705 doses have been administered across the province so far, with 298,549 people fully vaccinated.

To date, there have been 7,241 deaths from COVID-19 in the province.