COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - May 9 - 13, 2022
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Summary of developments from Monday, May 9 to Friday, May 13, 2022 follows.
Federal Government
Prime Minister Attends Second Global COVID-19 Summit
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the second virtual Global COVID-19 Summit, convened by the United States of America and co-hosted by the Governments of Belize, Germany, Indonesia, and Senegal.
The Prime Minister announced $732 million for the Access to COVID-19 Tools-Accelerator (ACT-A). This investment will help to overcome inequities in the global pandemic response by providing low- and middle-income countries access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, vaccines, and personal protective equipment.
At the summit, the Prime Minister highlighted that many countries continue to face challenges in administering vaccines in remote communities and among vulnerable populations, despite the fact that vaccine supply is no longer a major issue. He also noted that misinformation is undermining vaccine confidence.
Prime Minister Trudeau emphasized the need for global partners to work together moving forward.
COVID-19 Data Trends:?
In the past twenty-four hours, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported 2,936 new COVID-19 cases and an additional 39 deaths in Canada, bringing the cumulative total of cases to 3,816,273 and a total of 40,169 deaths.
Ontario
Yesterday, CP24 reported that Ontario’s chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore has denied a May 6 request from local medical officers of health from Niagara, Windsor-Essex and Peterborough to reinstate the mandatory mask order in a variety of settings including schools, stores and workplaces, saying it was not necessary at this time.
Doctors Thomas Piggott (Peterborough), Mustafa Hirji (Niagara) and Shanker Nesathurai (Windsor-Essex) said “The return of masking could help protect those with inequities and vulnerabilities, relieve the pressures on our hospitals, and most importantly protect the health of the people we serve.” Dr. Moore did not discourage Drs. Piggott, Hirji, Nesathurai to customize their COVID-19 responses to their local circumstances.?
Also on Thursday, Dr. Moore stated that COVID-19 indicators are heading in the right direction ahead of a “calm summer.” However, Dr. Moore raised concerns about the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, encouraging Ontarians to receive booster doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
This week, Dr. Peter Jüni announced that he will step down as scientific director of the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table at the end of June. Dr. Fahad Razak will be his successor.
The seven day average of new COVID-19 cases (May 7 – 13) is 1,789 and COVID-19 deaths is 90.
Today, there are 1,453 Ontarians being treated for COVID-19 in general hospital wards, including 168 patients in intensive care. Last Friday, there were 1,662 people reported to be in hospital with COVID-19, including 210 in intensive care. Accordingly, there has been a decrease of 167 patients in hospital and a net decrease of 50 patients in intensive care since last Friday.
To date, 33,056,135 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario.
As of May 8, 2022, 85.2% of the total Ontario population received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 81.2% of Ontarians have completed their primary series while 49.6% of Ontario population completed primary series and 1 booster dose.?
Quebec
On May 9, the office of the Minister of Health and Social Services Christian Dubé issued a press release announcing that the province had received 6,465 doses of Evusheld as part of its first shipment of this COVID-19 drug from the federal government. Further shipments are expected in the coming weeks.
Evusheld is used to prevent people from contracting COVID-19 and not to treat them once they have contracted the disease, as is the case with Paxlovid. The drug could potentially be useful for people who have a health problem that prevents them from developing sufficient antibodies despite the use of vaccines, such as people with severe immunosuppression.
The interim National Director of Public Health, Dr. Luc Boileau, provided a COVID-19 update on May 11, 2022.?He was accompanied by Dr. Marie-France Raynault, Senior Strategic Medical Advisor of the Public Health Branch of the Ministry for Health and Social Services, and by Dr. Caroline Quach, pediatrician, microbiologist-infectiologist at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine, full professor at l’Université de Montréal and president of the Comité sur l’Immunisation du Québec (CIQ), a permanent committee of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ).
Dr. Boileau reminded Quebecers that the mandatory mask rule will be lifted in public places on Saturday, May 14th at midnight, except for public transportation, hospitals, residential and long-term care centres (CHSLD), local Community Services Centres (CLSC), and medical clinics excluding psychiatric institutions.?
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Dr. Boileau summarized the vaccination guidelines for the province. A third vaccine dose is recommended for people above 18 years of age, pregnant women, healthcare workers of all ages, adolescents of 12–17 years of age who are at high-risk of COVID-19 complications or who live in a restricted community facility. The fourth vaccine dose is recommended for specific groups: those who live in residential and long-term care centres (CHSLD) or private seniors’ residences (RPA), those who live in other places that comport a high proportion of at risk individuals such as intermediate and family-type resources (RI-RTF) or resources for religious communities, those aged 80 and over, those who are immuno-suppressed, those who are on dialysis above the age of 12, and finally those who are very vulnerable and those who reside in an isolated or distant community. The minimum timeline to receive an extra dose is three months after the previous dose.
Lastly, Dr. Boileau announced the frequency of COVID-19 updates will decrease. COVID-19 related information will continue to be published on the government’s website.
Santé Québec reported 6,056 new cases with 150 virus-related deaths in the last 7 days. There was a net weekly decrease of 297 hospitalizations, bringing the total number of people being treated in hospital with the virus to 1,754. There was also a net decrease of 1 patient in intensive care in the last 7 days, bringing the total to 59.
More than 20 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 54% their third dose while 12% of the total eligible people have received their fourth vaccine dose.
Alberta
Alberta Health Services provided an update on COVID-19 data in the province. The provincial positivity rate is 20.72%. Currently, 1,225 individuals are being treated for COVID-19 in hospital – 42 fewer than in the previous week.?Of Albertans in hospital, 37 are in intensive care. To date, 8,772,287 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province. Data for May 5-11 show that 90.4% of eligible people 12 years and older have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 86.9% have received their second dose, and 37.5% have received their third dose.
In a briefing on Wednesday, Health Minister Jason Copping and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw reported that 70 COVID-19 deaths were added last week.?Both Minister Copping and Dr. Hinshaw repeated the importance of vaccines to reduce severe outcomes.
British Columbia
According to the weekly report (May 1-7) from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), there are 1,987 new COVID-19 cases and 59 new deaths in the province.?
In addition to being nearly a week old, each of those numbers comes with a lot of caveats. The new cases number reflects only infections confirmed or deemed probable through lab-based testing. The new deaths number reflects "30-day, all-cause mortality." This means it includes all deaths involving people who tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days of their deaths, whether or not the disease is the cause of death.
Currently, 596 individuals are in hospital and 54 individuals are in intensive care. Both of these numbers are the highest B.C. has seen in months.
According to the BCCDC, B.C. residents aged five and older, 91 per cent have received a first vaccine dose and 88 per cent have received two shots. A further 55 per cent of people in that age group – or 61 per cent of adults – have received a booster shot.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry revealed that more than a million British Columbians are sitting on invitations to get a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine. They urged the public to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible. Dr. Henry noted the evidence has been consistent and clear that getting a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine does increase protection against serious illness and death.
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