The results of a study done by a team from the Université de Sherbrooke suggest that confidence in vaccination slipped between the summer and fall of 2020. Carried out between June and November of last year, the international survey indicated that only 59 per cent of Canadians said they wanted to get the COVID-19 vaccine in November, compared to 68.3 per cent who were open to getting the vaccine when asked in the same survey the previous June.
The number of people who switched from being in favour of the vaccine to undecided increased by 8.5 per cent between June (17.9 per cent) and November (26.4per cent), with the rate among those who do not want to get the vaccine remaining fairly stable.
It is unclear how the implementation of vaccination programs, which largely began in December, impacted these confidence figures, but the researchers highlighted a correlation between the drop in confidence and a rise in people agreeing with conspiracy theories.
Scientists have recommended a vaccination rate of 70 per cent to achieve herd immunity, or the point at which a population exhibits “natural” immunity to a virus.
The Province of Québec reported 1,121 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total number of people infected to 273,847, with 11,047 active cases. The data also reported 37 new deaths, for a total of 10,149. The number of hospitalizations decreased by 44 compared to the previous day, for a cumulative total of 874. Among these, the number of people in intensive care decreased by 5, for a total of 143. The province reported carrying out 32,207 tests on Feb. 9 for a total of 6,185,270 so far, and 5,409 doses of vaccine were administered on Feb. 10, for a total of 272,332 to date out of the 310,425 doses that have been received.
In the Estrie Region the daily report was higher than it has been so far this week, at 65. As of Thursday’s report there were 408 active cases in the region, concentrated in the Sherbrooke, Haute-Yamaska and La Pommeraie areas but spread across the territory. The number of deaths in the region climbed by three to 291, after one community death and one each at the Saint-Jude residence in Granby and the Jardins de Pinecroft residence in Magog were recorded.
As of Thursday afternoon there were 26 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the Townships, with an additional three people in intensive care.
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