2021 Annual Report

Board of Health Members

• Denis Doyle (Chair) – County of Frontenac
• Wess Garrod (Vice-Chair) – Community Appointee
• Christopher Seeley – Province Appointee 
• Councillor Mary Rita Holland – City of Kingston
• Councillor Jim Neill – City of Kingston
• Councillor John Wise – County of Lennox & Addington
• Councillor Jeff McLaren – City of Kingston
• David Pattenden – Community Appointee

Message from KFL&A Board of Health Chair, Denis Doyle

I want to thank everyone for getting vaccinated and for supporting others to get vaccinated too. Together, our community’s efforts contributed to our region having the lowest death rate from COVID-19 in the province. This speaks to the remarkable effort and collaboration we have had with community partners throughout COVID-19. A special thanks to our 11 member municipalities for their support and to the Mayors and Wardens who met virtually every two weeks throughout 2021 to address COVID-19 issues and to enact consistent plans across the region.

It will be a long journey to recover as a community and to normalize COVID-19 as we have normalized all the other infectious disease viruses. However, as all of you have shown we have a solid foundation of unity and collaboration to move forward as a team.

Speaking of teams, we welcomed new leadership in October when Dr. Piotr Oglaza joined KFL&A Public Health as the new medical officer of health, replacing Dr. Kieran Moore who moved on to be Ontario’s new Chief Medical Officer of Health. We want to acknowledge with thanks the tremendous work of Dr. Hugh Guan and Linda Murray, who stepped in to lead the agency during the recruitment phase. As well, a great deal of thanks goes to all Board members who put forth a special effort, and attended additional meetings, while interviewing and selecting our new Medical Officer of Health. The seamlessness of ongoing public health efforts over the course of this transition speaks to the professionalism of KFL&A Public Health staff. I applaud their dedication.

Over the past year, the KFL&A Board of Health advocated to the provincial and municipal governments in several areas to support public health measures and to protect the health of our residents, including requests to: 

• Endorse Bill 216 Food Literacy for Students Act that offers experiential food literacy and healthy eating education for students from grade 1 to 12.
• Support for the hospitality and tourism industry in the KFL&A region.
• Endorse the adoption of anti-racism as the sixth foundational pillar to Canada Health Act.
• Support no-fault compensation for adverse effects following immunization.
• Support amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 that require employers in Ontario to provide adequate paid sick days to workers.
• Endorse Bill 239 Stay Home If You Are Sick Act.
• Support for small businesses during the provincial lockdown by requesting that all non-essential items be sold through curb side pick-up (including big box stores) and only allow in person shopping for essential items.
• Support the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus commitment to achieve the four-hour model of care for long term care residents.
• Support the Ontario Basic Income Network campaign to implement a permanent basic income program in Ontario.
• Support emergency stabilization funds for post-secondary education institutions in Ontario and endorse a federal post-secondary education act that ensures 80 per cent of all funding for education be provided by public funds.
• Support the KFL&A Community Drug Strategy Advisory Committee’s statement of support for decriminalization of people who use drugs.
• Support the call for the decriminalization of people who use drugs as an evidence-informed approach that will address the unrelenting overdose crisis in our community and fully acknowledge that substance use is a health issue.
• Support municipalities and organizations to implement a workplace vaccination policy.
• Support the expansion of the provincial proof of vaccination program to include non-essential businesses. 

As we move forward, it is my hope that we will continue to work together to address priority public health issues in the region. Together, we make KFL&A strong.

Message from KFL&A Public Health Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Piotr Oglaza

This past year was a year like no other. It has challenged us, made us adapt to new realities, and inspired us to never give up. But most importantly, it has made us proud of what our community can achieve together in a time of great crisis.

When it came to getting COVID-19 vaccine into arms, the KFL&A region was a leader in achieving one of the highest vaccine coverages in the province. This significant accomplishment was due to the tremendous support and commitment of staff and volunteers, health care agencies, primary care providers, pharmacies, schools, businesses, and municipalities.

Our community partners opened their doors to host vaccine clinics and offered their facilities and staff to help at these clinics. KFL&A region was also home to some of the largest mass vaccination clinics in the province which was a joint community effort involving large numbers of volunteers. Our health care partners worked tirelessly to support these vaccine clinics and to provide vaccinations in their own settings. Many pharmacies across the region made the vaccine accessible in every neighbourhood while Paramedics reached those who were homebound. These collective efforts of community partners were remarkable and reflected the strength of our community.

Over half a million COVID-19 vaccines (506,011) were administered in local vaccine clinics resulting in almost 93 per cent of 5 years of age and older receiving one dose of vaccine. As well, almost half a million COVID-19 tests (468,355) were completed with a quarter of a million patients (259,728) swabbed at local assessment centres.

We are grateful for the support that we have received from our community, partners in other sectors of the health system and businesses, the excellent advice, and ongoing funding from 11 municipalities across the region and our residents for getting vaccinated and adhering to public health measures to keep each other safe.

Although the pandemic is not behind us, the efforts of the residents and communities that make up the KFL&A region have positioned us well to minimize further disruption and illness. As circumstances change, we will adapt and change with them. As a community, we have worked incredibly hard to limit the spread of the virus and we all want to continue to keep our community healthy and safe. Many of the basic public health measures we emphasized during the pandemic will hopefully continue, including good hand hygiene, physical distancing, staying home when ill, and even mask wearing, if people so choose.

I am so pleased to be part of this community. It has been an honor taking on the role of medical officer of health at KFL&A Public Health during this critical time in public health history. I love my work in population health and I welcome the opportunity to continue to provide leadership as we move forward and focus on many other priority public health issues.

Let us continue to work together, support one another, and demonstrate our strength and resilience.

Together, we make KFL&A strong.