Niagara is continuing to push through with vaccinations of its older populations.

As of Monday, about 73 per cent of Niagara’s 80-plus population had been vaccinated, as had 39 per cent of the 75 to 79 age group and 7.1 per cent of people aged 70 to 74, the region's chief medical officer said.

Dr. Mustafa Hirji said in total about 9.3 per cent of Niagara had received a vaccine.

“And that's, of course, very good news.”

The number is fairly close to the provincial average, Hirji said, with Niagara above some other regions, largely due to vaccine allocation as a result of an older population.

Compared to other provinces, “Ontario is sort of middle of the pack here, not quite as good as B.C. or Quebec, but doing better than the Maritimes, doing better than Manitoba, really on par with Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

When it comes to regions in the province, Hirji said Niagara is a little bit above the provincial average of vaccines administered, but said it's more indicative of where the vaccine has been allocated than the job health units are doing. The allocation, he said, is largely based on which regions have a high populations of seniors.

While the region is working on expanding its health clinics, recently adding more dates from April 11 to 18, he said planning those dates depends heavily on information from the province on what the region's vaccine supply is going to look like in the coming weeks.