September is a ‘critical time’ for Canada’s fight over COVID-19, experts say – National | Globalnews.ca

September is a pivotal month for Canada’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to public health and infectious disease experts.

Students from across the country are returning to school, fully vaccinated travelers from around the world can re-enter the country, and Canada’s political leaders are entering the final stages of the federal election campaign.

Those events are happening as Canada is in the midst of a fourth wave of COVID-19 driven by the Delta variant, and as Canadians begin planning for fall and winter indoors.

“In the Northern Hemisphere … the seasons are changing and that’s where much of the (global) population is,” said Kerry Bowman, a professor of bioethics at the University of Toronto.

“This could potentially increase the number of variants and the emergence of variants, so this is a very important moment.”

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For weeks, Canada has been seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases, mostly among the unvaccinated. On Thursday, the country reported 4,179 new cases and 27 deaths.

Alberta led the nation in new cases with 1,510 reported Thursday, followed by Ontario with 798, British Columbia with 774 and Quebec with 703.

Alberta continues to suffer the brunt of the fourth wave. Its healthcare system is under increasing pressure, with 679 Albertans in hospital as of Thursday and just over 150 of them are being treated in ICU.

As a result, Alberta has postponed all elective and outpatient surgeries in Calgary to increase ICU capacity and redeploy staff to ICU and COVID-19 units.

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In July, Alberta was one of the first provinces to remove significant layers of COVID-19 restrictions, such as ending asymptomatic testing and stopping notifying close contacts of exposure.

Other provinces also relaxed the rules against the pandemic, but had to backtrack in recent weeks. Take British Columbia for example, where Health Minister Adrian Dix announced Thursday that some hospitals are delaying non-urgent surgeries due to spikes. The province had also removed a mask mandate, but had to reimpose it last month when cases began to increase rapidly.

For Alberta’s rising cases, part of the problem is its vaccination rate: Only 70 percent of eligible Albertans are fully vaccinated, the lowest vaccination rate in Canada.

On Friday, Dr. Theresa Tam told reporters at a press conference that 7.3 million Canadians have yet to get vaccinated, and communicating with them is key to tame COVID this fall and winter.

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So far, 85 percent of eligible Canadians are partially vaccinated, while 78 percent are fully vaccinated.

“There are still too many susceptible people and opportunities for the virus to spread,” Tam said. “From the community level up and across all eligible age groups, every vaccine counts.”

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He added that Canada is focusing on increasing vaccination rates among young people ages 18 to 39 to “slow the growth of the epidemic enough to reduce the risk of exceeding health care capacity during the winter.”

“Quickly reaching these milestones could also reduce the need for more disruptive measures that may be necessary to control activities if and when health care capacity is threatened,” added Tam.

One group that has not yet been vaccinated are children under 12 years of age. No vaccine has been approved for that age group, although trials are ongoing.

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With schools now open, it is important to monitor how Delta is spreading among children this September, said Dr. Omar Khan, professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto.

While Khan said most children will be asymptomatic, some could become ill.

“I think that with the reopening of the schools … the possibility of community transmission will increase because with learning in person and all that, that’s right,” he said.

“So we’ll keep looking at it closely.”

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As children return to school and vaccine uptake stabilizes, Canadians need to stay vigilant heading into fall because COVID-19 “does not get better on its own,” Khan added.

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Key indicators to watch this month include case numbers, hospitalization, and ICU data, as well as vaccine coverage in different age groups, said Dr. Barry Pakes, a professor at the University’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. from Toronto, in an email. to Global News.

Also, keep an eye out for outbreaks at large gatherings, school extracurricular activities, and other events.

“September, with the restart of school and children as the largest group of unvaccinated people, is a critical time,” he wrote. “The best way to protect children who cannot be vaccinated is to ensure that all members of your household are vaccinated and adhere to measures in schools such as detection and masking, among others.”

Canada’s opportunity to become a world leader

For Bowman, September presents an opportunity for Canada to become a leader in global health.

He said that while Canada has performed well in controlling the pandemic compared to other nations, to truly defeat COVID-19, Canada must meet and increase its commitments to combat the pandemic around the world.

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“There is a lack of national leadership throughout the pandemic; there is no nation that shows world leadership … I believe this is the opportunity for Canada. If we are who we say we are, you know, concerned about justice at the national and global level, that would be the right thing to do, ”he said.

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Bowman added that Canada needs to increase its vaccine shipments to COVAX, the global vaccine exchange program that supports low-income nations.

“Booster shots may be necessary for immunosuppressed people and a subset of people, (but) I think that in the short term, we shouldn’t have generalized booster shots, meaning third doses, at all, for ethical and epidemiological reasons.” , said. said.

“We really have to start making a deeper commitment to the world at large to protect ourselves and because it’s the right thing to do.”

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