Pilbara COVID cases climb as vaccine rate remains below 70 per cent

As the second wave of Omicron continues to spread across the State, the Pilbara’s vaccine rates have stalled with the region remaining below the 70 per cent mark and reporting just a 0.4 per cent increase in first doses over the past month. As of May 16 just 63.5 per cent of the West Pilbara population had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 62 per cent had two jabs. This marked a first dose increase of just 0.4 per cent since March 29 while the second dose rate increased by 0.9 per cent. The figures remain marginally higher in the East Pilbara where 68.5 per cent have received a jab, or a 0.4 per cent increase in four weeks, while the second dose mark increased by 0.7 per cent to 66.1 per cent. It comes as COVID-19 is once again spreading throughout the region with daily figures back into triple digits and on May 19 recorded a jump of 262 new cases bringing the total in the region back over 1000. From May 16-19 the region recorded a total of 920 new cases.