2022 Health Check-Up!
Message from the Commissioner & Medical Officer of Health
I am pleased to present the 2022 Durham Health Check Up! This year’s report summarizes our accomplishments and provides a snapshot of our COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery efforts which continued throughout 2022.
The year 2022 marked the third calendar year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and during this time, the Province of Ontario continued to follow the Roadmap to Reopen to guide a safe and gradual reopening of the province based on vaccination rates and improvement of key public health indicators. In 2022, Durham Region Health Department (DRHD) worked on restoring public health programs and services while balancing the need to respond to additional waves of COVID-19 and vaccinating additional eligible populations. Durham Region reported over 71,500 cases of COVID-19 and wastewater surveillance indicated that viral signals for SARS-CoV-2 continued to be high, demonstrating that COVID-19 continued to be prevalent in the community towards the end of 2022. The COVID-19 in Durham Region: Comparison of Waves report shows that we were experiencing waves 5, 6 and 7 of the pandemic throughout 2022. For Durham Region residents, 2022 represented a third year of hardships related to COVID-19, such as illness and death, mental health challenges, and economic burdens, among many others.
Despite these challenges, 2022 was also the year that mandates and restrictions were lifted, and services were restored across the Region. Provincially, all non-essential services were able to fully reopen in the beginning of March, followed by the removal of mask mandates in most places, including schools, by mid-March.
By the end of 2022, approximately 80 per cent of Durham’s population completed their two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series and almost half of the population aged five and older received a booster shot. These achievements helped residents protect themselves and their communities and would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts by DRHD staff, Regional colleagues, the provincial government, and various community partners and organizations.
I am thankful to the teams at DRHD that continued to work tirelessly on pandemic response activities and those that worked to adapt and restore regular programs and services, in addition to those who split their time between both.
I recognize and applaud the resilience and determination that DRHD staff has displayed over the past three years. Through our collective efforts, we have demonstrated that #PublicHealthProtects.
Robert Kyle, BSc, MD, MHSc, CCFP, FRCPC, FACPM
Key Health Department Achievements
2022 COVID-19 response in numbers
DRHD engaged in various COVID-19 response activities to reduce the spread of disease and protect the health and safety of area residents.
Between January 1 and December 31, 2022, a total of 464,563 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered.
COVID-19 response








- As of December 31, 2022, over 1.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered across Durham Region since the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine campaign.
- Approximately 80 per cent of Durham’s eligible population completed their two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series.
- Nearly half of the population aged five and older received a booster dose.
COVID-19 response activities and accomplishments
Contact Us
Health Department
The Regional Municipality of Durham
605 Rossland Road East
Whitby, Ontario L1N 6A3
Telephone (within regional limits): 311
Telephone: 905-668-7711
Toll-Free: 1-800-841-2729
Fax: 905-666-6214
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