Canada’s top doctor is urging people to get booster shots as COVID-19 activity continues to vary across the country.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, stressed that many Canadians who are eligible for a booster dose have not yet received it.
“We still have a lot to do, even for the over-65 population,” Tam said Friday.
According to federal datamost people aged 12 and over have completed their primary series, but the number of Canadians eligible for a booster dose who received one in the past six months is declining significantly for most eligible age groups.
Bivalent boosters were made available last fall, but many Canadians still haven’t received a bivalent shot. Federal data show that for the 60- to 69-year-old age group, about 46 percent received a booster dose in the past six months.
On Friday, Tam stressed the importance of getting a booster.
“Like winter weather, it can be hard to predict exactly what we’ll see, but we know it’s too early to put away our winter coats and boots,” she said.
“Similarly, it is still too early to stop taking the personal precautions that helped us weather the COVID storm.”
Instances of XBB.1.5 are expected to increase
Tam says officials are seeing an increase in the number of cases of the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant.
XBB.1.5 was circulating at about 2.5 percent during the week of December 25 to January 2.
That share is expected to rise to roughly seven percent by mid-January, Tam said.
But, she says, the absolute number of COVID-19 cases is not increasing, “nor is there evidence of increased burden with this or other new variants.”
In updated guidelines for booster doses, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) says that the evolutionary trajectory of SARSCoV-2, including the emergence of new worrisome variants, is still “uncertain” and the seasonality of SARS-CoV-2 has not been established.
RSV, flu cases ‘settle down’
As cases of COVID-19 continue to fluctuate, Tam says the number of cases of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is decreasing in the country and “has settled to expected seasonal levels.”
But that doesn’t mean flu season is over.
Pharmacies are already reporting shortages of cold and flu drugs for adults following a nationwide shortage of painkillers for children.
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said on Friday about 1.1 million bottles of children’s medicine would be available in pharmacies sometime this month.
Add Comment