Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 shots are set to arrive each week for the foreseeable future — but Canada’s chief public health officer warned that the relative scarcity of vaccines now means people still have to be vigilant about fast-spreading COVID variants.
After convening a call with the premiers last night, Trudeau said the federal government is working with the provinces and territories to make sure they’re ready for an onslaught of shots after weeks of meagre supplies.
“Vaccines are my top priority. I know the premiers feel the same,” Trudeau said. “The big lift we’re going to face, as our vaccine deliveries shift to the millions, means the provinces will need to be ready.”
While vaccine deliveries are stabilizing — thanks in part to firm commitments from Pfizer to deliver more shots than originally planned over the next six months — Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Canada’s supply of vaccines will still be comparatively small over the coming months.
Tam said the provinces and territories must maintain stringent public health measures to keep new, more contagious variants from taking hold.
“For the next few months, we’re not going to have a lot of people vaccinated,” Tam said. “That’s just a fact.”
Canada has roughly 38 million people and just under 1.4 million doses have been administered so far. Fewer than 500,000 Canadians have been fully vaccinated with two doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer products.
The Opposition Conservatives jumped on Tam’s comments in question period today, pressing the government to account for Canada’s slow start to the vaccination campaign.
“Are the Liberals admitting their failure to vaccinate Canadians has made Canada vulnerable to variants and is going to create more lockdowns?” said Michelle Rempel Garner, the party’s health critic, citing Tam’s remarks.
“The government has left us in a tinderbox situation where these variants might lead to more lockdowns, more lives lost and more jobs lost. This is crazy. Will the government admit their failure?”
WATCH: Trudeau cautions provinces about reopening too quickly
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with the premiers Thursday evening and outlined the discussion for reporters on Friday during his regular media briefing. 2:58
In reply, Darren Fisher, parliamentary secretary to the health minister, insisted that Canada is on track to vaccinate everyone who wants a shot by the end of September.
“We’re working the provinces and territories to protect our communities against outbreaks of these new variants,” he said.
Based on current estimates, Canada will have enough doses to fully vaccinate 14.5 million people by the end of June — a number that could tick higher if other promising vaccine candidates are approved by Health Canada.
But those higher vaccination thresholds are still months away and there’s a possibility that the pandemic will “surge rapidly and strongly,” Tam said.
The “variants of concern” are now present in every province, according to the latest data from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Hundreds of cases of the variants — 660 cases of the B117 variant, first discovered in the U.K., 39 cases of the B1351 variant, first identified in South Africa, and one case of the P1 variant, first found in Brazil — have been identified in Canada so far. B1351 has proven to be a vaccine-resistant variety.
With so few people vaccinated, most people haven’t developed herd immunity or antibody protection and cases can easily spike even after a lull, Tam said.
“The population immunity is still probably quite low,” Tam said. “Our vaccination programs continue to escalate but they haven’t got to a point where enough people are protected.”
Tam ‘very optimistic’ about new Pfizer studies
Tam urged provinces and territories to be cautious about dropping public health measures designed to curb the spread of the virus. Trudeau also warned his provincial counterparts against “opening up too fast” now that new COVID-19 strains are abroad.
As Canada contends with a relatively slow pace in vaccinations in the months to come, Tam said new research about the Pfizer product published by Canadian doctors in the New England Journal of Medicine and Israeli scientists in the Lancet could offer some hope.
Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Gaston De Serres from the Institut national de sante publique du Quebec found that a single shot of the Pfizer vaccine might be almost as good as two.
The doctors found that, by waiting two weeks after vaccination to start measuring the rate of new infections, there were 92 per cent fewer COVID-19 cases among those who had received just one dose of the vaccine compared with those who got a placebo.
The doctors said this research could give Canada leeway to push back the second dose and focus on getting that first dose into more people to build herd immunity.
“With such a highly protective first dose, the benefits derived from a scarce supply of vaccine could be maximized by deferring second doses until all priority group members are offered at least one dose,” the doctors wrote in their paper.
“There may be uncertainty about the duration of protection with a single dose, but the administration of a second dose within one month after the first, as recommended, provides little added benefit in the short term, while high-risk persons who could have received a first dose with that vaccine supply are left completely unprotected.”
Reasons to be ‘optimistic’
Similarly, a study of Israeli health care workers published in The Lancet found the first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine to be 85 per cent effective in preventing infection.
Tam said Canadians have reasons to be “very optimistic” about these findings. “There are studies now beginning to emerge both abroad and in Canada that just that initial dose packs quite a punch,” she said.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the findings “could be” a game changer for the country’s immunization campaign. “If the company decides to change its dosing schedule … we would review their data closely,” she said.
WATCH: Tam comments on new study of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam comments on a new study of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. 3:36
Canada will continue to recommend that provinces follow through with the two-dose regime, as manufacturers suggest, but Tam said there may come a time when the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) chooses to allow for more time between shots — to “stretch the interval,” as Tam put it — so that more people can get at least one dose sooner.
“It is incredible that we have such an efficacious tool,” Tam said of the Pfizer product. “We just need to hunker down, get the vaccines implemented and people to roll up their sleeves when the time comes.”
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
