The territory has reached the 75 per cent vaccination rate as over 350 new residents became fully vaccinated this past week.
The NWT is now 75 percent fully vaccinated and 79 percent partially vaccinated.
However, reaching the 75 percent mark no longer means that the territory will be moving to phase four of the Emerging Wisely plan, says Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola.
Kandola says there will be no amendment of the orders related to leisure travel in the NWT until further notice.
“This is due to the threshold of 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases nationally averaged over seven days not being met, as well as the NWT’s current outbreak,” she adds.
Kandola says opening up leisure travel has been delayed to reduce strain on limited health system resources; avoid assuming additional risk at a crucial moment in the pandemic response; and relieve potential concerns among communities during a period of heightened stress.
“While we are still considering amendments to allow for leisure travel, they won’t be considered until later this fall once there is a safe reopening of schools and as many people as possible have been vaccinated,” she adds.
Kandola says while everyone shares a desire to further relax restrictions once it is safe to do so, the health and safety of NWT residents must come first.
“With a growing number of infections in multiple communities, including small communities, we’ve determined that further relaxation of public health orders introduces too much risk,” she adds.
357 residents received the second dose of the vaccine for the week ending August 21st, while 471 residents received first doses, over 200 more than this time last week.
This means 32,113 residents have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 34,182 first doses have also been delivered to residents.
