Ontario is set to make a decision early next week on whether to extend eligibility for fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines amid a seventh wave of the virus, the province’s top doctor said Thursday. Ontario is under pressure to expand eligibility for fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine beyond people age 60 and older, immunocompromised populations and Indigenous peoples, as Quebec has done. This province has opened eligibility to all adults. The Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore said in an interview that he expects news on that to come next week about “and if and how” the rollout will be expanded, but said he’s more concerned about the number of people who haven’t had a third dose. still. “Of those five million who haven’t even had their first booster, many of whom are well six months after their last dose, a million of them are over 50 and we know that age is a really important a risk factor for COVID, severe outcomes, and hospitalization,” Moore said. “So we’re asking first before we open further that the one million, and the five million, but the one million over 50 who haven’t turned up, consider getting vaccinated in July.” For people 59 and under, a second booster may not provide significant protection against serious outcomes because they weren’t at risk for serious outcomes to begin with, Moore said. “We always do a risk-based strategy and risk-based communication around vaccination development and if these (currently eligible) groups stop showing up and we see that the volume of patients coming in for immunizations goes down, we will increase the suitability criteria”, he said. Ontario and Quebec are experiencing seventh waves of COVID-19, but health officials in both provinces predict they will soon peak. Quebec’s director of public health, Dr. Luc Boileau, said Thursday that while the highly contagious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariables are well established in Quebec and behind the increase in cases and hospitalizations, there are indications that they will peak this month. “We expect the trend to taper off during July, but there are uncertainties about that,” he added. “The curve is slower than it was 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 were all on the rise. Moore said he expects Ontario could see the peak of the surge next week. Moore said if people decide to get their third dose now, he wouldn’t stop them from getting a new shot in the fall if it becomes available. Several vaccine makers are racing to develop formulas that can target Omicron, and Moore said he hopes to have them available in the fall. Ontario plans to bring back a mass vaccination strategy for people at risk if so-called bivalent vaccines become available and vaccinate up to 100,000 people a day. If a bivalent vaccine is not available in that timeframe, there is still an “ample” supply of the original Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for the fall, Moore said. Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé encouraged Quebecers to get the COVID-19 booster shot. He said he considered waiting for his own fourth dose until September in case a more effective vaccine became available. Instead, Dubé, who is 65, decided to step up on Thursday. “It’s been over three months (since my last dose). I’m in the category of people that if I caught it, I could have a harder time than someone who is 25 or 30 years old,” said Dubé. If needed, he will get another dose in the fall after another three to four months have passed. “I think when it comes to the booster dose, with the recommendations from public health, I was more comfortable taking it now. and I think others should do the same,” he said. Officials have said that despite the current spike in COVID-19 indicators, they do not plan to reimpose new public health mandates, such as mask mandates on public transit. Instead, officials urged those infected with COVID-19 to follow isolation guidelines and those who have not received a booster shot to make 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 Thursday, adding that the situation is considered under control. Boileau said one of the factors leading to transmission is that infected people do not respect the province’s 10-day isolation rules from the time symptoms appear. Infected people should spend the first five days at home and then wear a mask outside for the next five days, he said. “Basically, that’s what explains the current wave: it’s the fact that those who have (COVID-19) are giving it to others,” Boileau said. “Obviously, there are a lot of people who don’t respect (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 another 16 deaths linked to the disease. A weekly update released Thursday by Public Health Ontario showed a 20 percent week-over-week increase in cases, an increase in the positivity rate from 8.4 percent to 11.2 percent and signs that hospitalizations and deaths were rising . This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 7, 2022. Sidhartha Banerjee and Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
