COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - Aug. 15 - 19, 2022
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A summary of developments from Monday, August 15 to Friday, August 19, 2022 follows.
Federal Government
This morning, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, and Dr. Howard Njoo, the deputy chief public health officer, provided their weekly update on the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discussed the state of the monkeypox virus in Canada.
Regarding COVID-19, Dr. Tam indicated that the disease activity indicators, including weekly case counts, have been declining for the past few weeks and many areas of the country appear at, or past their current wave of activity. She emphasized the need to get up to date on vaccines as the fall approaches because more people will be going to in-person work and children will be returning to school.?
Dr. Tam noted that protection from the vaccine decreases over time, particularly against the Omicron variant, and there is uncertainty regarding the timing and severity of future COVID-19 waves. She underlined that the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended a full boost vaccine dose should be offered to eligible people who are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness, and may be offered to all other eligible people, regardless of the number of vaccine booster doses previously received.
Dr. Tam reported that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is closely monitoring monkeypox in Canada and internationally. A total of 1,168 confirmed cases, including the first reported case of monkeypox in New Brunswick, were reported nationally. There are 30 people with monkeypox hospitalized across Canada. Over 59,000 people across Canada were vaccinated with at least one dose of the Imvamune vaccine as of August 14. Dr. Tam noted a slowing trend in the increase of new cases reported in recent weeks.
During the news conference, Dr. Tam announced that Health Canada had approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty? COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years and that NACI ?had released its guidance for use in Canada.?NACI recommends that a complete series with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to children 5 to 11 years of age who do not have contraindications to the vaccine, with a dosing interval of at least 8 weeks between first and second dose. For children 5 to 11 years of age who are moderately to severely immunocompromised, NACI recommends immunization with a primary series comprised of three doses of an mRNA vaccine, using an interval of 4 to 8 weeks between each dose.
Yesterday, the Government of Canada announced support for mental health distress centers in response to surges in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is part of a $50 million investment first announced in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement.
COVID-19 Data Trends?????
The national COVID-19 statistics were updated today at 8:00 a.m. EDT.
For the week of August 7 to August 13, 2022, there were 24,161 new?COVID-19 cases in Canada and 251 deaths, bringing the cumulative total of cases to 4,135,607 and deaths to 43,505.??
National Vaccination Coverage???
As of August 14, the Public Health Agency of Canada (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:
Ontario
Today was the grand reopening of the CNE after two years of closure.?
Ontario introduced the next phase of A Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stability and Recovery yesterday (Ontario news release ). As part of the plan, the Ontario government is seeking to alleviate strain on the healthcare system by adding thousands of new healthcare workers. To do so the government plans to temporarily cover the costs of examination, application and registration fees for internationally trained and retired nurses.
New legislative proposals will also seek to free up hospital beds. The Ontario government will allow senior patients in hospitals, who are waiting for a place in a long-term care home, to be transferred to an alternative facility until they can be placed in their preferred long-term care location. The province expects that this measure could free up 250 hospital beds within six months of implementation.
The Ontario government also plans to make investments to increase surgeries in both paediatric hospitals and private clinics covered by Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). Critics have argued that this measure is an early step toward privatization of healthcare in the province, but Health Minister Sylvia Jones has rebutted that Ontario must be “bold, innovative and creative” to address weaknesses in the healthcare system. In a press conference yesterday, Minister Jones added that “Ontarians will always access health care with their OHIP card,” indicating that the Government of Ontario plans to protect the single-payer model while opening the door to more private provision of services.
As of Wednesday, there were 1,356 people with COVID-19 in hospitals. That is down by 46 patients at the same time last week. There were also 137 patients being treated in intensive care, down from 142 the week before.
Over the course of the last seven days, the estimated number of daily COVID-19 cases was 1,389, marking a decrease of 241 cases for the same time last week.
Lastly, the province reported 56 new deaths over the past week, down from 96 the week before. COVID-19 related deaths in Ontario have dropped considerably this week compared to recent highs. As deaths are considered a “lagging indicator” of COVID-19 severity, the downward trend in deaths could indicate that Ontario’s seventh wave is continuing to wane after its reported peak two weeks ago. (CBC news analysis ).
Currently, 90.9% of Ontarians, aged 5 or older, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.6% have received both doses. In addition, 62.7% of people aged 18 or older are vaccinated with three doses.
Quebec
While there was no press conference this week, there was one press release (French only) regarding the launch of the new fall vaccination campaign against COVID-19. Based on a recommendation by Quebec's Immunization Committee, the campaign aims to immunize the most vulnerable ahead of the entire adult population.?Public Health recommends receiving a new dose five months following the previous one, regardless of the number of booster doses received to date. The press release also highlights that, since August 15, teams have been deployed to vaccinate people living in residential and long-term care centers (CHSLDs) or private retirement homes (RPAs) and those living in other collective environments with a high proportion of elderly and vulnerable people.
Santé Québec reported 6,056 new cases with 65 virus-related deaths in the last 7 days. There was a net weekly decrease of 3 hospitalizations, bringing the total number of people being treated in hospital with the virus to 1,997. There was also a net decrease of 10 patients in intensive care in the last 7 days, bringing the total to 47.
More than 20.4 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 19% of the total eligible people have received their fourth vaccine dose.
Alberta
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week. As of August 15, 2022, on a 7-day average, 818 people were hospitalized, of which 28 were in intensive care. There were 1681 new cases reported this week, making the positivity rate for testing on a 7-day average 21.93%. There have been 9,141,292 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in Alberta in total. 90.7% 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.
A Global News Article reported that COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to trend upward. The amount of patients in intensive care remained the same. Because of limits on who is eligible for a PCR test in Alberta, public health officials have said active case counts in the province are likely much higher than what is being reported. Alberta House Services reported an additional 21 COVID-19 deaths over the past week bringing the total number of verified COVID-19 deaths in Alberta to 4,684.
The Calgary Harold reports that the Alberta government plans to launch an independent review into its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has said the government decided not to commission a public or judicial inquiry on account of cost and time considerations.
British Columbia
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week on their COVID-19 Dashboard . As of August 18, 2022, on a 7-day average, there are 366 people hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 22 are in critical care. There were 877 new cases this week and 24 new deaths.
Canada’s COVID-19 Tracker reported this week that 12,259,478 vaccine doses have been administered in British Columbia in total. 86.925% of all people in British Columbia have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84.186% of all people in the province have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Only 53.801% of all people are fully vaccinated with a third dose.
CBC News reports that in a peer reviewed study, researchers at the University of British Columbia have discovered a “weak spot” in all COVID-19 variants that could potentially open the door for treatments to combat current and future mutations of the virus. Researchers have identified an antibody fragment that has survived and neutralized all COVID-19 mutations to date to some degree.?
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