Ontario is poised to decide early next week whether to expand eligibility for fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines amid a seventh wave of the virus, the province’s chief medical officer said Thursday.
Ontario has been under pressure to expand eligibility for fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine beyond people 60 and older, the immunocompromised and Indigenous people, as Quebec has done. This province has opened eligibility to all adults.
Health chief medical officer Dr Kieran Moore said in an interview that he expected news to come next week on “whether and how” to expand the rollout, but said he was most concerned about the number of people who have not yet had a third dose.
“Of those five million who haven’t even had their first booster dose, many of whom are well over six months since their last dose, one million of them are over 50 and we know that age is a really important risk factor for COVID, severe outcomes and hospitalization,” Moore said.
“So we’re asking first, before we open another million, all five million, but one million over 50s who haven’t turned up, please consider not getting vaccinated in the month of July.”
For people 59 and under, a second booster may not provide significant protection against severe outcomes because they were not at risk for severe outcomes to begin with, Moore said.
“We always do risk-based strategy and risk-based communication around immunization rollout, and if these (currently eligible) groups stop performing and we see the volume of patients coming in to be immunized goes down, we will increase eligibility criteria,” he said.
Ontario and Quebec are experiencing a seventh wave of COVID-19, but health officials in both provinces predict they will soon peak.
Quebec Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau said Thursday that although the highly contagious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are well established in Quebec and behind the rise in cases and hospitalizations, there are signs that it will peak you are this month.
“We expect the evolution to turn downward in the month of July, but there is uncertainty about that,” he added. “The curve is slower than a week ago, so that’s a small sign that we might get to the other side of it in the near future.”
In Ontario, the number of cases, positivity and hospitalizations increased. Moore said he expects Ontario to see the surge peak next week.
Moore said if people decide to get their third dose now, it won’t prevent them from getting a new vaccine in the fall if it becomes available.
Several vaccine manufacturers are racing to develop formulations that can target Omicron, and Moore said he hopes they will be available in the fall. Ontario plans to bring back a mass vaccination strategy for at-risk people if so-called bivalent vaccines become available and inoculate up to 100,000 people a day.
If a bivalent vaccine is not available on that schedule, there is still “sufficient” supply of the original Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for the fall, Moore said.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé encouraged Quebecers to get a booster shot against COVID-19. He said he had considered waiting for his own fourth dose until September in case a more effective vaccine became available.
Instead, Dube, who is 65, decided to be reinforced on Thursday. “It’s been over three months (since my last dose). I’m the type of person who, if I catch him, I might be in more trouble than someone who’s 25 or 30 years old,” Dube said. If necessary, he will receive another dose in the fall after another three to four months have passed.
“I think as far as the booster dose, with the public health recommendations, I was more comfortable getting it now. and I think others should do the same,” he said.
Officials said that despite the ongoing rise in COVID-19 rates, they do not plan to reimpose new public health orders, such as mandatory masks on public transportation. Instead, officials urged those infected with COVID-19 to follow isolation guidelines and those who did not receive a booster shot to keep an appointment.
“I think the whole world is fed up with COVID, but I think we’ve been saying all along that we have to live with this COVID,” Dubé said on Thursday, adding that the situation was considered under control.
Boileau said one of the factors driving transmission is that infected people do not follow the province’s 10-day isolation rules from the moment symptoms appear. Infected people should spend the first five days at home, then wear a mask outside for the next five days, he said.
“That’s basically what explains the current wave: It’s the fact that those who have (COVID-19) are giving it to others,” Boileau said. “It looks like there are a lot of people who don’t follow (the rules) and that would be good if they did.”
On Thursday, Quebec reported 1,534 people hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase of 37 from the previous day. Officials said 43 people were in intensive care, an increase of three. They reported 16 more deaths related to the disease.
A weekly update released Thursday by Public Health Ontario showed a 20 percent increase in cases over the week, a rise in the positivity rate from 8.4 percent to 11.2 percent and indications that hospitalizations and deaths are rising.
Meanwhile, asked if there was any concern about a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases after the Calgary stampede, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney noted that travel has not fully returned to normal as airlines still struggle to operate flights.
“But … it’s back to normal,” he said.
Kenney said there haven’t been many additional cases of COVID-19 traced back to last summer’s Stampede — though he acknowledged the virus continues to circulate in the province.
“We, like the rest of the world, go on with our lives. I don’t want people in the summer of 2022 when we only have about 20 people in intensive care units with COVID, I don’t think people should be sheltered in a home, living in fear If there are immunocompromised people, they will always have to take some precautions.
“Like any other major event in the world, we’re getting back to normal here and there’s no reason to believe it can’t be done safely and permanently.”
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