In its most recent COVID-19 update, the Saskatchewan government reported that just under 52 per cent of adults had at least one booster dose.
“It’s too low by far,” said interim Saskatchewan Health Authority senior medical health officer Dr. Cory Neudorf.
Neudorf says it’s vital people have their booster.
“It’s actually three doses required to properly protect you against Omicron,” he said.
Dr. Neudorf also highlighted how the majority of those 18 and older in the province received their second vaccine last July. He says immunity starts to wan after five to six months, with little protection after nine.
“For a lot of people, what we’re starting to see is increased infection rates if it’s been more than five months since their last dose,” said Neudorf.
“Then as far as the protection against severe complications, that tends to last a little bit longer.”
“The thing that a booster does, it’s shown that it, first of all, it ramps up the type of immunity that helps protect you from getting infected in the first place.”
“It also really increases your immunity for this protecting against serious disease really well.”
Joan Cochrane is the co-president of the Saskatoon Council on Aging’s Resources Hub for 55 plus, which has roughly 5,000 members.
She also works as a pharmacist and is pushing for members to get boosted.
“The third dose has definitely been shown to reduce severe disease and reduce the incidence of hospitalization and death,” said Cochrane.
One reason she recommends it for her members is the chance of catching COVID from their grandchildren who aren’t old enough to be vaccinated.
“Those kids can be super-spreaders of disease and children aren’t good at social distancing … if you’re going to be around unvaccinated children, you have to have another layer of protection,” said Cochrane.
Neudorf says he knows some people are considering waiting till the fall for their booster, which he strongly advises against.