Hamilton schools have a wide range in vaccine uptake

As in-person learning resuming in Hamilton’s education system, the city has begun sharing school-by-school vaccine uptake.

Among the schools included, estimates of full vaccination range from 92.2 per cent all the way down to 31.3 per cent. The rates are only calculated among  students born in 2010 or earlier, who have been vaccine-eligible longer than children who are five to 11 years old.

All of the six ‘most vaccinated’ schools are in suburban areas away from the lower city — two Catholic elementary schools in Ancaster, one public elementary school in Waterdown, a private school on the mountain, and two schools in Dundas (one Catholic, one public).

Five religious private schools, and one in the French Catholic board, comprise the six schools with the lowest vaccine uptake. Bearing in mind that the data represents a snapshot in time, and is only updated montly, those six schools are estimated to have a vaccine uptake of under 44 per cent among students who were born before 2010.

The city’s data only includes students who reside in the city and were born in 2009 or earlier, meaning children aged five to 11 are excluded from the count. As a whole, 46.26 of that age group in Hamilton has received at least pediatric dose of COVID-19 vaccine, thanks to a recent jump in demand. About 9.72 per cent of that age group has has two doses. Children aged five to 11 can receive their second dose 21 days after their first.

Estimates have also not been made made for schools that do not have students born in 2009 or earlier, or have fewer than 10 in that age bracket (due to privacy concerns).

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With that in mind, here are the top six, and bottom six:

Highest

1. 92.2 — St. Joachim CES, Ancaster (HWCDSB)
2. 90.3 — Imnaculate Conception CES, Ancaster (HWCDSB)
3. 90.2 — Allan A. Greenleaf ES, Waterdown (HWDSB)
4. 89.3 — Hillfield Strathallan College, Hamilton (private)
5. 89.1 — Sir William Osler ES, Dundas (HWDSB)
6. 89.1 — St. Augustine, Dundas (HWCSDB)

Lowest

1. 31.3 — Bellstone Christian School, Mount Hope (private)
2. 33.3 — Grace Christian School, Millgrove (private)
3. 36.8 — Rehoboth Christian School, Hamilton (private)
4. 40.0 — Islamic School of Hamilton (private)
5. 43.8 — Southern Ontario Collegiate, Hamilton
6. 43.8 — École élémentaire catholique Notre-Dame (Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir)

The Islamic School of Hamilton is reported, however, to have a 68.6 first-dose coverage, which is significantly higher than the other schools with low full vaccination. École élémentaire catholique Notre-Dame is the only other one in that group where half of students have received at least one jab — at exactly 50 per cent.

Hillcrest Elementary School, at an estimated 44.9 per cent for full vaccination, has the lowest uptake among schools in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB).

Within the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic board (HWCDSB), St. Ann’s elementary school has the lowest full-vaccination uptake at 53.6.

The city notes that estimates may be slightly underreported. That is due to inability to access or link some vaccine records, or because some students were vaccinated outside of Hamilton.

Full data is available at hamilton.ca.