Third dose for adults | Ontario moving forward, Quebec waiting

Faced with the meteoric progress of the Omicron variant, Ontario will allow all adults to make an appointment for a third dose of vaccine barely three months after the second on Monday. Despite pressure from Ottawa on all the provinces, Quebec is sticking for the moment to the enlargement, announced Tuesday, to people aged 60 and over as of January. A third dose should however be administered to all as quickly as possible, believes an expert.

Ariane Krol
Press

“All provinces must speed up their third-dose vaccination process,” Federal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

“It is the priority for all the provinces, including Quebec, to considerably increase the rate of vaccination”, he continued, referring to “the information that we now have, that we do not have. ‘was not just a few weeks ago’ on the Omicron variant.

“What we see in the studies that are circulating is that six months is probably too long after a second dose,” added Minister Jean-Yves Duclos regarding the time limit currently recommended by the National Advisory Committee on immunization (CCNI, federal) and currently applied in Quebec for people over 70 years old, health personnel and those who have a health problem increasing the risk of complications related to COVID-19.

In Ontario, all adults will be able to make an appointment for their booster dose as of next Monday, as long as three months have passed since their second dose, Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday. The Omicron variant infects four to eight times more people than the Delta variant, argued D^r Kieran Moore, Chief Medical Officer of Health.

Need for vaccinators in Quebec

In Quebec, the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, did not answer questions from journalists when he arrived at the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.

“Even before the federal government invites the provinces to accelerate the administration of the third dose, Quebec had already presented its strategy to increase its vaccination capacity,” argued his cabinet in writing.

“As we presented [mardi], Quebec is going to give a boost to accelerate the vaccination of the booster dose. To do this, we need 500 vaccinators in order to increase our capacity, ”said attaché Marjaurie Côté-Boileau.

Minister Christian Dubé announced on Tuesday that he hoped to recruit 500 new vaccinators using the I contribute! With more vaccinators, Quebec could open the administration of the third doses to people 60 years and over before January. From 300,000 vaccines per week currently administered, Quebec wants to increase the rate to 600,000 in January.

Quebec, however, did not specify how many of these 830 candidates offered to be vaccinators, the group also including accompanying persons. “The regions are in the process of evaluating the candidatures”, it was specified.

A third dose “as soon as possible”

The third dose should be administered “to everyone as quickly as possible,” said André Veillette, professor of medicine and director of the Molecular Oncology Research Unit at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute. But we have to be strategic and vaccinate first the most vulnerable people and those who received their second dose longer ago, he said. “We know that three doses are better than two doses to protect against the Omicron variant and even against the Delta variant,” he emphasizes. According to Veillette, the third dose results in “increased protection within one to two weeks.”

While Ontario’s concern about the Omicron variant is understandable, administering a dose of vaccine every three months represents logistical challenges, according to virologist Benoit Barbeau, professor in the department of biological sciences at the University of Quebec in Montreal. (UQAM). “We protect the wealthiest countries to the detriment of countries where a large percentage of the population has not even received a dose,” he argues. But due to the large number of cases in Quebec – which reached a peak in nearly a year on Wednesday (see next screen) – he nevertheless maintains that the government will have to act or at least “to extend the group a little more. age ”eligible for the booster dose.

Doses in stock

Canada does not have enough doses in stock to administer a booster dose to all Canadians, but it will have them, the federal Minister of Health has also assured.

The 16 million doses currently in the provinces, territories and Ottawa warehouses are sufficient “for several weeks of booster doses, and many millions more will arrive in the coming weeks and months,” he said. detailed Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

“We have enough booster doses for all the adults who want one. So, when it is your turn, please get yourself vaccinated, ”Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the sidelines of an announcement Wednesday in Ottawa.

Mr. Trudeau has shown himself willing to allow the military to help provinces that may be short of immunization personnel.

“If the provinces ask for additional help, we will be there, because we know that this third dose is very important to avoid not only being infected with the Omicron variant, but above all, to avoid the serious impacts that lead to hospitalizations, ”he said.

With Mélanie Marquis, Mylène Crête, Florence Morin-Martel, Fanny Lévesque and The Canadian Press