The Ontario government has been incorrectly reporting the number of people fully vaccinated for weeks, with the actual number closer to half of what’s been previously announced.
Ahead of the latest COVID-19 numbers being posted Thursday, the government announced that officials had misinterpreted the “total vaccinations completed” category.
"Rather than provide data on the number of people who have been fully vaccinated (currently two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine), officials inadvertently provided data on the number of doses administered to achieve full vaccination,” a ministry of health statement said. “As a result, the number of people who have been fully vaccinated is half of what is currently listed.”
On Wednesday, the tally of those considered fully vaccinated was over 96,000, which meant the actual number was over 48,000.
Once the error was discovered and updated data was put in for Thursday, the current number of people fully vaccinated in Ontario is now 55,286.
The government is also changing its category description to “total number of people who have been fully vaccinated.
The number of doses administered has not changed, currently at 317,240.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said whenever an error like this happens, the city would look over its own numbers, but he’s confident Toronto Public Health has an accurate report of what it’s done so far.
As for the error itself, Tory said they’re bound to happen in an operation as big as this.
“The test they will apply is did you acknowledge that there was an error, did you indicate that you would fix the problem that led to it and did you continue to move forward?” he said. “Mistakes are made, things happen and the key is you need to move forward.”
As for new cases, the province reported 2,093 new ones on Thursday, after over 64,000 tests completed, bringing the per cent positivity rate is 3.3 per cent, down from four per cent Wednesday.
The seven-day average is also at 2,128, which is a reduction from 2,396.
Tory cautioned while it won’t happen overnight and should be gradual, it is time to start planning for a reopening of the province and coming out of lockdown once public health officials say it’s safe to do so with measures in place.