Health officials urge vigilance as variants spread

Tam calls for adherence to safety measures as vaccines slowly arrive

OTTAWA—Canada’s top public health authorities are warning that it is not time to “take the brakes off” collective and individual public health restrictions now that contagious new COVID-19 variants have been found in all 10 provinces.

As Ontario allowed reopening of more schools and workplaces, and winter weather delayed Pfizer’s now-resumed weekly vaccine shipment to Canada, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam and her deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo, stopped short of criticizing provincial governments.

They said strict controls had slowed the post-holiday spike in infections, hospitalizations and deaths, but chief medical officers of health across the country are alarmed in the face of three new variants detected in Canada.

To date, testing has identified 540 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first found in the United Kingdom, 33 cases of the B.1.351 variant first found in South Africa, and one case of the P.1 variant first found in Brazil, Tam said.

“Starting with a few travel-related cases in the early weeks, these variants have been smouldering in the background and gaining fuel that now threatens to flare up into a new rapidly spreading blaze,” said Tam.

The average of new daily infections reported is below 3,050, down from a high of 8,885 in early January, with an average of 75 deaths reported daily over the past week, down from a high of 171. Tam said there are just over 2,700 people with COVID-19 in hospital including 622 in critical care.

A surprise outbreak that took hold in Newfoundland and Labrador late last week was linked to the U.K. variant and led to a postponement of the provincial election and its conversion to mail-only ballots.

Tam said that province’s quick response shows what is necessary to contain an outbreak. Newfoundland went from having just a handful of cases to having 297 active cases. On Tuesday it reported seven new cases, with another 25 presumptive cases.

Tam appealed to Canadians to stick to measures that have been shown to work to clear the “runway” for the increased vaccine supplies that were expected to start this week.

But the on-again, off-again Pfizer-BioNTech deliveries ran into new problems Tuesday, just as Canada’s shipments were to start ramping up.

Winter weather delays hit the United States affecting a delivery that was transiting to Canada, delaying it by a day, Pfizer Canada said. The company said it expects only a one-day delay that won’t affect the overall delivery of 403,650 doses for Canada this week.

Pfizer confirmed it will ramp up its shipment next week, to deliver 475,020 doses in the week of Feb. 22, followed by five more weekly deliveries of 444,600 doses through to the week of March 2, to hit its contractual commitment of four million doses for Canada by the end of the first quarter.

Pfizer is promising delivery of 10.8 million doses from April to June, for a total of 14.8 million doses to the end of the second quarter, and another 25.2 million doses during the third quarter. That would bring Pfizer’s total delivery since Dec. 15 to 40 million doses.

There is less clarity at the moment around Moderna’s delivery schedule.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke on Monday with Moderna chair Noubar Afeyan, who confirmed the company will deliver its promised two million doses by the end of March.

Canada has bought a total of 44 million doses from Moderna, 40 million of which are supposed to arrive by the end of the third quarter.

Trudeau also said he spoke to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who again confirmed to him that exports to Canada would not be curtailed under export transparency regulations Europe has enacted to ensure its own member states receive contracted supplies.

New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh called on the federal government to instruct the military to set up federal vaccination clinics to boost provincial efforts to more quickly vaccinate Canadians. “The magnitude of the job is massive,” Singh said.

But Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc dismissed that idea. He told reporters that the Public Health Agency of Canada believes provinces and territories have the capacity to deliver millions of vaccines over the coming weeks and months.

The next stage of the vaccine delivery raises questions around who should be next in line.

The National Advisory Council on Immunization has made recommendations for what groups should be given priority access to vaccines in what it calls Stage 2 of the vaccine rollout, as more supply becomes available.

The council released guidance Monday, saying vaccines should be offered next to:

> health workers who weren’t part of the first round, meaning those who didn’t have direct patient contact in the COVID-19 response;

> residents and staff of all other congregate settings, such as migrant workers, correctional facilities and homeless shelters;

> essential workers, especially “racialized populations and recent immigrants” who are overrepresented in jobs providing essential services and have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.