New vaccine brings optimism amid rising threat of variants, high case counts
AstraZeneca needle gets Health Canada approval
Canada’s vaccine rollout received a boost Friday with the approval of a third COVID-19 inoculation, giving the country another immunization option at a time when case counts remain nearly 75 per cent higher than they were at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic.
Health Canada approved a vaccine from AstraZeneca, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said jabs will keep arriving “faster and faster as we head into the spring.”
While numbers of cases and hospitalizations have dropped from all-time highs just weeks ago, variants of concern are rising in parts of the country.
Canada’s top doctor Theresa Tam said nationally there are 964 reported cases of the variant first detected in the U.K., up from 429 reported two weeks ago. There were also 44 cases of the variant first discovered in South Africa, and two cases of the version first found in Brazil.
“The risk of rapid re-acceleration remains,” Tam said. “At the same time new variants continue to emerge ... and can become predominant.”
Tam added that average daily case counts in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have increased between eight and 14 per cent over the previous week.
Thunder Bay, Ont., will move into lockdown on Monday after community leaders called for government action following a recent spread of COVID in the city. Outbreaks have been declared there at correctional facilities, among the homeless population and at a number of local schools.
Ontario’s Simcoe Muskoka region will also go into lockdown next week after a spike in infections, but restrictions will loosen in seven other areas in the province.
Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, said the country’s vaccine rollout will be just one method in slowing the spread of new variants and avoiding a third wave.
He said public health measures aimed at halting transmission such as physical distancing and limiting contacts remain important, adding that jurisdictions that have recently reopened need to keep a keen eye on transmission rates.
“Certainly if there’s any indication that the case rates and ... the emergence of variants are increasing, we would need to adjust as appropriate,” Njoo said.
“But the vaccinations, and certainly the introduction of more vaccines coming to Canada is very, very good news.”
Experts advising the Ontario government said this week more contagious variants of COVID-19 are expected to make up 40 per cent of cases by the second week of March.
Trudeau also announced on Friday a partnership with Mississauga’s Verity Pharmaceuticals and the Serum Institute of India that will deliver two million more doses of the AstraZeneca jab — in addition to the 20 million doses Canada already secured with AstraZeneca.
Trudeau said as vaccinations ramp up across the country, many provinces have expanded the number of health professions able to administer a COVID-19 vaccine, and he asked dentists, midwives, pharmacy technicians and retired nurses to lend a hand in the rollout.