“What’s happening in other countries is six to eight weeks ahead of us and in places like Portugal, hospitals are starting to fill up – we’ll see the same thing here.”
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Some Alberta doctors are hailing a COVID-19 booster shot recommended for Canadians this fall by the country’s immunization experts.
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But there is concern about how it will be received by Albertans, whose uptake of the third dose has been poor, even as another wave of Omicron variant-driven illness looms.
“Thirty-eight percent of all Albertans have had their third injection, that’s not very good,” said Edmonton critical care physician Dr. Noel Gibney.
“What is happening in other countries precedes us six to eight weeks and in places like Portugal, hospitals are starting to fill up; We will see the same thing here.”
The rate of Alberta residents receiving at least one dose, at 80.34%, is the lowest among provinces in a country where the median level of acceptance is 85%, according to federal government statistics.
On Wednesday, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended that provinces should plan to offer booster shots in the fall for people who are most at risk, regardless of how many booster doses they already have. have received.
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It says this should include people 65 and older, residents of long-term care or housing facilities, and people 12 and older with an underlying medical condition that puts them at high risk for severe COVID-19.
The recommendation also includes adults in indigenous, racialized and marginalized communities where infection can have disproportionate consequences, as well as migrant worker housing, shelters, correctional facilities and group homes.
NACI also recommends that boosters be offered to all other people 12 to 64 years of age, regardless of the number of booster doses they have previously received.
“COVID-19 cases, including associated hospitalizations and deaths, are currently declining in Canada. However, the likelihood, timing and severity of a future wave of COVID-19 are uncertain,” NACI said in a statement.
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“It is possible that, consistent with other respiratory viruses, the incidence of COVID-19 will increase in the late fall and winter seasons, posing a risk to individuals/communities and increasing pressure on health systems.”
Canada’s public health director, Dr. Theresa Tam, says Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants in circulation are even more transmissible and able to evade immunity than previous versions, likely increasing cases In the next weeks.
She and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos stress the importance of up-to-date vaccination status, noting that 40 per cent of Canadians have yet to receive a booster after their two main vaccinations, putting Canada behind other G7 countries when it comes to three. dose
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Gibney said the definition of potential high-risk vaccine recipients should be expanded to younger people with conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure.
“(Calling for reinforcements) is a big step forward, but their recommendations are probably not broad enough,” he said.
The province’s top doctor said health care officials have been waiting for NACI instructions on further reinforcements before taking action.
“We continue to follow NACI guidance on COVID-19 vaccines. If the eligibility requirements for vaccine series and boosters change, we will update Albertans and make the vaccines available to those who need them,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a statement. . June 22 tweet.
While the province did reasonably well in rolling out the first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, it stumbled after that, in part in response to strong resistance from the ruling UCP base and some MLAs, he said. NDP health care critic David Shepherd.
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“What we know from the UCP’s track record is that they have been very slow to take the necessary steps to help protect our communities against COVID-19,” he said.
“We quickly saw that start to unravel as we started moving to younger people and third-dose vaccines and we saw increasingly toxic anti-vaccine rhetoric from some UCP MLAs and we’ve seen a complete plateau in vaccination uptake.”
He said Health Minister Jason Copping must quickly reveal a plan to roll out booster shots, even as the UCP conducts a leadership race involving candidates opposed to continuing COVID-19 protections.
NACI says it will provide recommendations on the type of COVID-19 vaccine to be offered for this booster dose as evidence on appropriate vaccines becomes available.
Gibney said he is confident that the vaccines chosen will be consistent with the changing variants of COVID-19.
“It makes a lot of sense to change it, just like we do with the flu,” he said.
But he said if governments intend to live with COVID-19, air quality improvements in public buildings are needed, particularly as the colder months approach.
“It’s still a pandemic, it’s not endemic,” Gibney said.
— With archives from The Canadian Press
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
