COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - Sept. 19 - 23, 2022
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A summary of developments from Monday, September 19 to Friday, September 23, 2022 follows.
Federal Government
Anticipated Changes to COVID-19 Travel Requirements:
Early this week, Canadian mainstream media began reporting that the government was planning on dropping COVID-19 vaccine requirements at the border, eliminating mandatory random COVID-19 testing, and making the ArriveCan application optional. It would appear that the Prime Minister has now approved the changes, essentially allowing the current emergency orders expiring on September 30 to lapse. A formal announcement is expected on Monday.
?In the meantime, the current policy for non-US citizens requires proof of vaccination when entering the country by land or air. Under the CDC definition, a traveller is considered fully vaccinated:
The 14 days is calculated as a full 14 days, a traveller is considered fully vaccinated on the 14th day after the vaccination series was completed. It is important to note that a booster dose is not currently required to be eligible to travel to the U.S. Eligible proof vaccination includes a certificate with QR code, printout of vaccination record, digital photos of vaccinations card or record or a mobile phone app without a QR code.
Today, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, announced four new additional passport pick up locations including: Fort McMurray, Alberta; Moncton, New Brunswick; Rimouski, Quebec and; Whitehorse, Yukon.
Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism:
While in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly Meeting, the Prime Minister announced that the Government of Canada renewed its commitment to the Global Fund’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, pledging $100 million. This Fund “supports countries to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on programs to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.” To date, Canada has pledged $3.9 billion to the Global Fund with an additional $225 million for the Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism for urgent funding gaps related to COVID-19 testing, medical oxygen and supporting the requirements of nations in need.
COVID-19 Data Trends:
The Canadian COVID-19 statistics were updated on Friday, September 23 at 8:00 a.m. ET.
In the past week, The Public Health agency of Canada (PHAC) reported 17,325 new COVID-19 cases in Canada and 196 deaths, bringing the cumulative total of cases to 4,233,468 and deaths to 44,992.?
National vaccination data has not been updated since Saturday, August 14. At that time, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported that 85.24%?of the Canadian population was vaccinated with at least one vaccine dose.
Update on Monkey pox 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 monkey pox in Canada.
While there are over 60,032 confirmed cases of monkey pox globally, PHAC reported a total of 1,379 confirmed cases of monkey pox across Canada: 667 in Ontario, 515 in Quebec, 150 in British Columbia, 39 in Alberta, 3 in Saskatchewan, and 1 in Manitoba, 1 in New Brunswick, 1 in Nova Scotia and 2 in the Yukon.
Ontario
There were no COVID-19 updates or press releases issued this week.
The COVID-19 statistics for Ontario were last updated on September 17.
There were 6,968 cases reported in the previous week with 286 additional hospital admissions and 49 COVID-19 related deaths. The total number of COVID-19 cases experienced in the province since the start of the pandemic has risen to 1,437,504 and 14,259 deaths.
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As of September 11, 85.8% of the population has received one dose, 82.6% has received their primary series and 51.1% their primary series and 1 booster dose.
Quebec
The 2022 Quebec provincial election is scheduled to take place on Monday, October 3, 2022. The campaign is still underway and there were no press briefings or press releases on COVID-19 this week.
Santé Québec reported 4,184 new cases with 54 virus-related deaths in the last 7 days. There was a net weekly increase of 25 hospitalizations, bringing the total number of people being treated in hospital with the virus to 1,568. There was also a net increase of 5 patients in intensive care in the last 7 days, bringing the total to 40.
More than 21.1 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 23% of the total eligible people have received their fourth vaccine dose.
Alberta
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week. As of September 19, on a 7-day average, 843 people were hospitalized, of which 26 were in intensive care. There were 1,194 new cases reported this week, making the positivity rate for testing on a 7-day average 19.52%. There have been 9,246,916 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 87.4% of the population 12 years of age and up are vaccinated with 2 doses.
According to a CBC article, the bivalent booster for COVID-19 is now available to adults in Alberta. Albertans 18 years of age and older, who have completed a primary series of earlier vaccines, are eligible for the bivalent booster. However, people are advised to wait a minimum of five months from their last does or COVID-19 infection before getting the shot. People who may be at a higher risk of severe outcome from COVID-19 may be considered for a three-month interval between vaccine doses.
British Columbia
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week on their COVID-19 Dashboard. As of September 22, on a 7-day average, there are 305 people hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 22 are in critical care. There were 637 new cases this week and 22 new deaths.
Canada’s COVID-19 Tracker reported this week that 12,419,400 vaccine doses have been administered in British Columbia in total. 87.367% of all people in British Columbia have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84.339% of all people in the province have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Only 54.585% of all people are fully vaccinated with a third dose.
CBC reports that B.C. has begun its fall vaccination campaign. Bivalent COVID-19 booster invitations are being sent based on people’s risk and age so long it has been at least six months since their previous dose. As outlined by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, the new combination vaccine will be offered to adults 18 and older, and youth from 12 to 17 who are at higher risk of developing serious illness form COVID-19. Priority groups will continue to include people over the age of 60, Indigenous peoples of all ages, and people who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
The Vancouver Sun reports that a new University of British Columbia study suggests that long-COVID is an autoimmune disease. Long-COVID patients can show signs of autoimmune disease a year after catching COVID-19. Approximately 80 percent of COVID-19 patients still have antibodies present six months after catching the disease targeting their own healthy cells and tissues. After a year, 41 percent still had the autoimmune disease, according to blood samples.?
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