When Canada’s first pandemic response guidelines of the year were released, public health officials warned it was “too early” to ease measures against COVID-19, noting the spread of the sub-variant known as XBB.1.5 or Kraken.
At a press conference in Ottawa on Friday, Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, the country’s health sector is still recovering and while flu and RSV levels have returned to seasonal norms, cases of COVID-19 are still vary across Canada.
“That’s why it’s still important to do everything we can to prevent severe disease,” Tam said.
She and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos used the news conference, during which they also discussed wastewater testing at major Canadian airports, as an opportunity to reiterate just-released advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) calling for continued the booster doses of vaccines against the disease.
The latest guidance from NACI, Tam said, includes that bivalent boosters “remain one of our best defenses” against the worst outcomes of COVID-19.
Vaccines are not 100 percent effective, federal guidelines say, but they can affect the severity of illness, including whether hospitalization is needed.
Although not everyone experiences severe symptoms from COVID-19, they can include difficulty breathing, persistent chest pain and pressure, confusion, inability to wake up or stay awake, and pale gray or blue skin, lips and nails, according to the Department of Health Canada. Anyone experiencing these should call 911.
More common symptoms of COVID-19, including the Kraken sub-variant, include sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, fatigue, body aches, loss of smell or taste, headache, diarrhea and vomiting.
NACI’S FIRST REPORT SINCE 2023
Ahead of the press conference, NACI released updated guidance — the first for the new year — on how it proposes to manage the spread of COVID-19 through 2023.
Its “initial considerations” revolve around booster shots and are “based on current evidence, vaccine principles and NACI expert opinion.”
The report suggests that what matters most to committee members is the uncertainty about the future of the pandemic, including how many more booster shots might be recommended and when.
NACI said its guidance is likely to change as it monitors COVID-19 activity.
For now, his advice is the same as it was given in the fall: Those who didn’t get a booster shot in the fall, despite recommendations at the time, should do so now. As in the fall months, a bivalent vaccine containing Omicron is preferred for everyone over the age of five in Canada, the NACI guidelines say.
Booster doses should be at least six months after infection or a previous dose, the panel said, and children aged between five and 11 should still receive just one injection after their primary series.
In setting its guidelines, NACI noted that age is still the greatest risk factor for severe infection outcomes.
“KRAKEN” SUB VARIANT.
NACI also monitors national and international data, including what Tam called “contextual information, such as the level of immunity in the population,” as well as the impact of different variants as they spread.
“We are seeing an increase in the proportion of sequence discoveries associated with the XBB.1.5 variant,” she said.
Dubbed the Kraken because of its ability to spread rapidly, this variant is an indication not only that COVID-19 continues to evolve, but that there is a need for vaccine justice worldwide to prevent further development, according to infectious disease researchers. diseases.
“Through whole-genome sequencing of clinical samples, XBB.1.5 is known to have been circulating in Canada at 2.5 percent during the week of December 25 to January 2,” Tam said.
“This share is projected to grow by approximately seven percent by mid-January. While XBB variants are expected to increase in Canada, it is unknown if they will become a dominant line.”
In an interview with CTV News, Dr. Fahad Razak, former head of the Ontario Science Table, addressed what he described as exponential cases of the XBB.1.5 subvariant.
“We saw a spike that occurred in the United States in December. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that it has risen to about 40 percent of all cases overall — from virtually none at the beginning of the month to 75 percent of cases in the northeastern United States,” he said.
“There are 10 cases here, but given how porous our border is and the fact that we’ve seen these variants flood in every wave when it was a matter of time, we’re seeing the takeoff happening in Ontario now.” “
And he added, in areas where there is an increase in this variant, health officials are seeing an increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19. He said the death toll was also rising in some parts of the US.
“We know that it can still make people very sick, especially if you’re vulnerable or if you’re not protected enough,” Razak said.
Tam said in Canada that the subvariant is not associated with increased severity, but those studying the Kraken, including infectious disease specialists at Yale Medicine, say it appears to be the most transmissible, as well as more efficient and contagious.
“Like winter weather, it can be hard to predict exactly what we’ll see next, but we know it’s too early to put away our winter coats and boots. Likewise, it is still too early to start taking the (far) personal precautions that have helped us weather the COVID-19 storm,” she said.
TESTING OF WASTEWATER AT AIRPORTS
Duclos mentioned additional measures related to travel to Canada from China, first announced earlier this month, which include denying entry to all travelers arriving from China, Hong Kong and Macau who do not test negative for COVID-19.
Those who have been cleared to enter the country, including travelers who have passed through these destinations within 10 days, are receiving additional information from Public Health Canada officials.
Citing “a limited amount of epidemiological and genomic sequencing data testing” regarding a recent surge in cases, Duclos spoke of pre-announced action being taken to gain insight into the spread of COVID-19.
Pilot projects at two major airports – in Vancouver and Toronto – will see wastewater from flights coming from China and Hong Kong tested. These projects are expected to start at the end of the month.
“This will further improve our ability to track the emergence of variants coming into Canada,” he said.
“Effluent monitoring is a key tool for monitoring public health. It can alert public health officials to where diseases like COVID-19 and new worrisome variants may be spreading.”
Effluent monitoring is currently being used across Canada to monitor the spread here as well.
With files from CTVNews.ca Senior Digital Parliamentary Reporter Rachel Aiello
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