All of Canada is now officially considered in the sixth wave of COVID-19, confirms federal public health nearly two weeks after Quebec entered this phase of the pandemic.
“Yes, we can say that we are in the 6th wave, in general, in Canada, because there is an increase in COVID-19 everywhere,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, chief administrator of the Agency of the Public Health Canada, who was answering questions from reporters on Tuesday.
Federal officials responsible for monitoring the evolution of the health situation in the country had indicated at the beginning of April that this sixth wave had not yet arrived everywhere in Canada, since the situation is very different from region to region. the other. They had at that time predicted two scenarios for the pandemic, but neither of them anticipated the end of the spread of the virus “in the foreseeable future”.
Theresa Tam reiterated on Tuesday that scientists strongly advise getting the recommended booster doses of a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine in this setting.
“Due to the fact that the Omicron variant tends to evade the immune mechanism, two doses of a vaccine against COVID-19 protect less well against this variant than against the previous ones,” she explains. A booster dose is therefore useful to increase the number of antibodies to protect against the virus.
A report from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) released Tuesday states that all adults 18-49 and adolescents 12-17 with risk factors “should” take their first booster dose of a mRNA vaccine at least six months after their first series of two vaccines.
Given the “higher activity context”, NACI considers that all adolescents 12 to 17 years of age, even those without risk factors, should also be offered the booster dose. Quebec already offers this booster dose to adolescents who wish to receive it.
Vaccinated persons infected with COVID-19 should wait at least 3 months after the onset of symptoms or a positive test to receive this booster dose.
The National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) officially announced on March 30 that a sixth wave of COVID-19 was hitting Quebec. Arriving even earlier in Europe, the sixth wave is showing signs of slowing down on this continent.