High Vaccines, Low Cases: When is it safe to lift COVID-19 restrictions? | The Canadian News

With Ontario’s number of COVID-19 cases stalled in recent weeks, Prime Minister Doug Ford announced the province’s new plan on Friday afternoon to gradually lift the remaining restrictions.

Starting Monday, the province is lifting capacity limits at restaurants, gyms, indoor event spaces, and other places where proof of vaccination is currently required, and anticipates lifting proof-of-vaccination controls in some locations beginning with the new. anus.

BC also announced earlier this week that it will raise capacity limits on indoor meetings, while Quebec will raise capacity limits on bars and restaurants starting November 1.

But we’ve been here before. When Ontario lifted the restrictions in early 2021, the number of cases skyrocketed. The same thing happened in Alberta during the summer.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to ease restrictions, said Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and associate professor in the department of medicine and the University of Toronto School of Public Health.

“I think now is a good time to open things up cautiously,” he said. Although opening too quickly risks a resurgence in cases, opening things carefully and using tools like proof of vaccination requirements could be safe, ”he said.

“When they’re opening stadiums for 20,000-30,000 people with no space in between, it doesn’t really justify keeping things like restaurants closed,” he said.

Mike Willis, a heart transplant recipient from Guelph, Ontario, agrees.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “At the same time, although I am triple vaccinated, my antibody levels are much lower than many people who have received a single injection. With the anti-rejection medications I take, I have to be very careful and have been for over six years. “

Limiting access to certain places to only vaccinated people makes you feel better about reopening.

“If people are careful, we need it for the economy,” he said.

Others aren’t so sure reopening is a good idea at this point.

Dr. Susy Hota, medical director of infection prevention and control for the University of Toronto Health Network, advises caution.

“Across Canada, we are at 88 percent or higher on the first doses. So I think we are targeting a very attractive number of eligible populations, ”he said.

Still, he noted, it’s hard to say exactly at what point herd immunity will kick in.

“Which is the magic number? Nobody really knows. “

When considering reopening, he believes the authorities would like to see a clear trend of declining cases.

“If you are about to start down the curve, it is too early. It should make sure it continues in that trend because a further reopening can cause it to grow exponentially again, ”Hota said.

He also believes that governments should ensure that the number of hospitals has also decreased, and consider giving healthcare workers “a break” after a wave of cases, rather than potentially dipping them directly into a new one.

Then there are the unvaccinated, including some children who are not yet eligible. Hota would rather wait a few weeks to see if vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11 are approved before proceeding with the reopening. Pfizer Canada has submitted its application for a COVID-19 vaccine for that age group, and Health Canada is currently reviewing it.

TO Children’s Health Coalition statement, a group of children’s hospitals and medical providers, urges a “cautious approach” to the reopening that “duplicates” measures to protect school-age children, including reducing community transmission of the virus.

Dr. Don Vinh, an infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at McGill University Health Center, isn’t sure it’s time to start loosening the COVID-19 restrictions.

“It’s like a campfire,” he said. “There are some places where the flame is going out and those people are in trouble. And there are other places where the flame is dying or it is just embers. “

The risk, he said, is that if you move away from the embers they can reignite. And if it reopens too quickly, “it invites the possibility of an increase in community broadcasting.”

“Why do a medical cha-cha? Why two steps forward and one step back? “

Banerji said that given Canada’s high vaccination rate, a slow reopening could work.

“I think having those vaccinations and having a vaccine passport allows people to participate in a way that we couldn’t last year,” he said.

Having school-age children vaccinated will also make a difference, he said.

“I hope that once they get vaccinated, most of society opens up again, especially to people who are vaccinated. It would make sense. “

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