B.C. has reported 1,475 new COVID-19 cases and 22 deaths over the weekend, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during a press briefing Monday (Jan. 11).
By day, there were 538 cases reported Saturday, 507 cases Sunday, and 430 cases Monday, with nine epi-linked cases. The weekend’s deaths bring the total COVID-19 death toll in B.C. to 1,010.
By region, the three days worth of cases break down to 736 in Fraser Health, 287 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 217 in Interior Health, 59 in Island Health and 173 in Northern Health and three people
There are 5,220 active cases of COVID-19 following the weekend. Currently, there are 358 people in hospital, of whom 72 are in critical care or ICU. There have been a total of 58,107 confirmed cases in B.C. since the pandemic began, of whom 50,551 have recovered. There are currently more than 7,313 people under active public health monitoring, excluding Northern Health due to data compilation issues.
There are 50 active outbreaks at long-term care facilities and 10 in acute care.
Henry said there have been 59,902 doses of both COVID-19 vaccines administered as of Sunday night, mostly of the Pfizer vaccine. She said the Moderna vaccine, which does not require ultra-cold storage, is going to remote areas. In total, B.C. has received 71,200 doses of the two vaccines.
She warned that even though people are being vaccinated, it’s not time to get complacent.
“We expect more vaccines, and more vaccines to be approved for use, by March,” Henry said.
“[But] we do not have enough supply coming between now and the end of march to achieve that community immunity.”
Henry, who has previously estimated that herd immunity could begin at 60 per cent of the population vaccinated, said the figure depends on the novel coronavirus’s reproductive number, or how many people each infected individual spreads the virus to.
She said that with COVID, 60-70 per cent immunized should prevent it for most people,” but added that it “will not prevent some of those superspreader events.”
If different variants of the virus become more prevalent, including the faster spreading one first reported in the U.K., Henry said that herd immunity threshold may have to be reevaluated.
Henry also defended the province’s decision to give out the second dose at 35 days after the first, and not either 21 days as initially recommended for the Pfizer vaccine or 28 days with the Moderna vaccine.
“By waiting between doses it allows the body to build up that immunity,” she said, noting that the time period between the two doses allows the body to develop “antigens that attack the proteins, also for the body’s cell-mediated immunity to recognize the offending protein, the virus, as well.”
“We did not take this decision lightly,” she added, noting that scientists have reviewed materials from here in B.C. and around the world. B.C. has been told, she said, that vaccine deliveries will be backloaded – meaning that the rate of delivery will increase as time goes on.
“Based on the data from the clinical trials… shows protection two weeks [after first dose] was 92.6 per cent for Pfizer and 92.1 per cent for Moderna. That is quite frankly amazing.”
The data also shows, Henry noted, that there was no difference shown in immunity when people received their second dose at 19 days for Pfizer, 21 days for Moderna or at 42 days for either vaccine.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
