COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - Aug. 29 - Sept. 2
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A summary of developments from Monday, August 29 to Friday, September 2, 2022 follows.
Federal Government
Health Canada Approval of COVID-19 Bivalent Vaccine
Yesterday, Health Canada announced that it has authorized a new version of the Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine. The new vaccine (known as a “bivalent” vaccine) targets the SARS-CoV-2 from the first COVID outbreak in 2019 along with the Omicron (BA.1) variant. The bivalent vaccine has now been approved as a booster dose for individuals 18 years and older who have received any vaccine series including Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Children 12-17 who are considered at highest risk are also eligible to receive the bivalent vaccine. Health Canada’s approval of the bivalent vaccine is conditional on Moderna providing continual updates on safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
CTV News reports that doses of the bivalent vaccine could be administered as early as next week.
Government of Canada and Air Industry Work on Reducing Congestion in Airports
On August 24, Transport Canada made a statement regarding new travel regulations taking effect September 8, 2022. The new regulations will ensure that air travel passengers are offered the option of a refund for flights that are cancelled or subject to lengthy delays due to reasons “outside of an air carrier’s control.” Refundable causes include: “major weather events or a pandemic, and instances where it is not possible for the air carrier to complete the passenger’s itinerary within a reasonable time frame.” The CTA developed an information resource for Canadian travellers to know their rights under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations.
Changes to Cabinet Committee System
The PMO’s news release of August 31 that announced the mini-shuffle with the exchange of portfolios between the Hon. Filomena Tassi (Public Service and Procurement Canada) and the Hon. Helena Jaczek (FedDev Ontario), also announced changes to the membership of Cabinet committees. Cabinet committees of interest include:
The Cabinet Committee on Safety, Security and Emergency includes a Sub-Committee on the federal response to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), to provide whole-of-government leadership, coordination, and preparedness for a response to, and recovery from, COVID-19. That committee is chaired by the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities Dominic LeBlanc and co-chaired by the newly-appointed Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada Helena Jaczek.
COVID-19 Data Trends
The Canadian COVID-19 statistics were updated on Friday, September 2 at 8:00 a.m. EDT.
In the past week, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported 20,843 new COVID-19 cases in Canada and 261 deaths, bringing the cumulative total of cases to 4,179,337 and deaths to 44,085.
National Vaccination Coverage
As of August 14, the PHAC reported that 85.22% of the Canadian population was vaccinated with at least one vaccine dose. In the last 4 weeks, many people received vaccines:
Indigenous Communities
On August 29, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) updated COVID-19 statistics of on reserve cases. ISC only reports COVID-19 data on reserve land and these numbers do not reflect off-reserve Indigenous populations.
To date, there have been 117,376 reported cases on reserve with 115,323 of those patients recovered. There are currently 836 active cases on reserves. Between August 21–27, there were 0 cases in the Atlantic region, 49 in Quebec, 388 in Ontario, 82 in Manitoba, 37 in Saskatchewan, 12 in Alberta and 14 in British Columbia.
Vaccination data was last updated on August 16. There have been 1,183,549 vaccine doses administered, 447,255 were second doses and 187,252 were third doses. 90% of individuals aged 12+ have received a second dose and over 39% have received a third dose. More than 52% of children aged 5-11 have received their first dose.
687 communities are reporting continued vaccination efforts.
Update on Monkeypox in Canada
Today, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam, and Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Howard Njoo provided a technical update on the spread of monkeypox in Canada.
While there are over 50,750 confirmed cases of monkeypox globally, PHAC reported a total of 1,251 confirmed cases of monkeypox across Canada: 582 in Ontario, 493 in Quebec, 137 in British Columbia, 31 in Alberta, 3 in Saskatchewan, and 1 in Manitoba, 1 in New Brunswick, 1 in Nova Scotia and 1 in the Yukon.
With University campuses re-opening to students across the country, Canadian Universities are beginning to develop monkeypox prevention strategies. Many are calling for vaccination clinics on campuses. Carleton University and Ottawa Public Health, for example, stated they will be opening a vaccination clinic on campus on September 7 for all eligible students, faculty and staff. Furthermore, physicians such as Dr. Zain Chagla from St. Joseph’s Healthcare, are calling for de-stigmatization campaigns on campuses to reduce the negative impacts experienced by the 2SLGBTQ+ community in relation to the disease.
Ontario
On August 31, 2022, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore announced that the province would be dropping the 5-day isolation mandate for people experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. Dr. Moore stated that individuals feeling unwell should isolate while feeling symptomatic and return to the office or school 24 hours following the end of symptoms.
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Dr. Moore also encouraged masks to be worn for 10 days after a voluntary 24 hour isolation period, however, masks are not mandatory. Dr. Moore also stated that these guidelines are for the general public and more specific instructions for workplaces that are at higher risk, including long-term care facilities are too come. As of now, schools are not included in the list of vulnerable workplaces.
Yesterday, Public Health Ontario (PHO) released new Terms of Reference for the Ontario Science Advisory Table. Renamed The Ontario Public Health Emergencies Science Advisory Committee (OPHESAC), the new organization will move forward with an updated mandate that reflects a long-term approach to maintaining the provision of credible and independent scientific and public health advice. OPHESAC’s updated mandate is “to enhance provincial capacity to respond to a spectrum of public health emergencies with the best available evidence. OPHESAC will provide independent scientific advice to PHO, and where appropriate through PHO to the Ministry of Health, to inform the management of public health emergencies consistent with PHO’s mission, vision, mandate, and values.”
Global News reported that OPHESAC will not have the final say on what topics it can investigate; all research approval is at the discretion of Public Health Ontario. This new approach has raised public concerns over the independence of the new organization.
COVID-19 Data Trends
The COVID-19 statistics for Ontario were last updated on Thursday, September 1.
As of Thursday, there were 1,279 people with COVID-19 in hospitals. That is down from 1,402 at the same time last week. Of those patients, 135 were being treated in intensive care.
Over the course of the last seven days, the estimated number of daily COVID-19 cases was 1,224, marking a decrease of 97 cases for the same time last week. Another 98 Ontarians with COVID-19 died in the last seven days.
Currently, 91.1% of Ontarians, aged 5 or older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.7% have received both doses. In addition, 62.9% of people aged 18 or older are vaccinated with three doses.
Quebec
As Quebec launched its provincial election campaign this week, there was no time devoted to COVID-19 press conferences or press releases.
Santé Québec reported 4,292 new cases with 75 virus-related deaths in the last 7 days. There was a net weekly decrease of 190 hospitalizations, bringing the total number of people being treated in hospital with the virus to 1,728. There was also a net decrease of 4 patients in intensive care in the last 7 days, bringing the total to 37.
More than 20.7 million vaccine doses have been administered to Quebecers residing in and outside the province. The Santé Québec COVID-19 dashboard shows that 91% of the total eligible people aged 5 years and older have received their first vaccine dose and 56% have received their third dose, while 21% of the total eligible people have received their fourth vaccine dose.
Alberta
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week. As of August 29, on a 7-day average, 857 people were hospitalized, of which 20 were in intensive care. There were 1,367 new cases reported this week, making the positivity rate for testing on a 7-day average 18.77%. There have been 9,194,772 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in Alberta in total. 90.8% of the population 12 years of age and older are vaccinated with 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.3% of the population 12 years of age and up are vaccinated with 2 doses.
British Columbia
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week on their COVID-19 Dashboard. As of August 27, on a 7-day average, there are 306 people hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 25 are in critical care. There were 651 new cases this week and 33 new deaths.
Canada’s COVID-19 Tracker reported this week that 12,323,527 vaccine doses have been administered in British Columbia in total. 87.224% of all people in British Columbia have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84.264% of all people in the province have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Only 54.020% of all people are fully vaccinated with a third dose.
According to a Ministry of Forest Report, the provincial government will provide short-term employment opportunities on northern Vancouver Island support forest workers affected by COVID-19 and other forestry-sector impacts under the government’s Forest Employment Program (FEP). Projects, often involving indigenous partnerships, include funding upgrades to forest service roads, range infrastructure, recreational trails, community access, and wildfire mitigation. The projects are part of $185 million over three years from Budget 2022 to provide co-ordinated and comprehensive supports for forest workers, industry, and communities and First Nations that may be affected by new restrictions on old-growth logging.
A CBC news article reports that Health Minister Adrian Dix said that the Omicron vaccine will be available to most British Columbians by the end of October. This comes following Health Canada’s approval of Moderna’s “bivalent” vaccine that also targets the original strain of the virus. Minister Dix believes the shot is more effective at protecting people from serious illness caused by Omicron. However, the Omicron sub variant most prevalent in British Columbia is now the BA.5 variant, not the BA.1 variant targeted by the vaccine. Officials are expected to provide further information about timing and eligibility for the shots on September 6, 2022.
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