A woman waits outside at a mass COVID-19 vaccination site, in Mississauga, Ont., on March 22, 2021.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Peel’s top doctor says the region will begin moving through five-year age groups every week as it aims to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the hot spot.
Dr. Lawrence Loh says he is optimistic that the plan will allow the region, which has high rates of COVID-19, to exit the pandemic sooner.
Region officials say they will start vaccinating people aged 50 and older on Monday, and will descend through the age ranges in five year increments each week.
They warn that timeline could be extended depending on vaccine supply or if uptake in an age group is higher than predicted.
They estimate that they will be able to give 65 per cent of Peel Region’s total population their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by early June.
COVID-19 is caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2, and as it spread around the world, it mutated into new forms that are more quickly and easily transmitted through small water droplets in the air. Canadian health officials are most worried about variants that can slip past human immune systems because of a different shape in the spiky protein that latches onto our cells. The bigger fear is that future mutations could be vaccine-resistant, which would make it necessary to tweak existing drugs or develop a new “multivalent” vaccine that works against many types, which could take months or years.
Not all variants are considered equal threats: Only those proven to be more contagious or resistant to physical-distancing measures are considered by the World Health Organization to be “variants of concern.” Five of these been found in Canada so far. The WHO refers to them by a sequence of letters and numbers known as Pango nomenclature, but in May of 2021, it also assigned them Greek letters that experts felt would be easier to remember.
ALPHA (B.1.1.7)
- Country of origin: Britain
- Traits: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are still mostly effective against it, studies suggest, but for full protection, the booster is essential: With only a first dose, the effectiveness is only about 66 per cent.
- Spread in Canada: First detected in Ontario’s Durham Region in December. It is now Canada’s most common variant type. Every province has had at least one case; Ontario, Quebec and the western provinces have had thousands.
BETA (B.1.351)
- Country of origin: South Africa
- Traits: Some vaccines (including Pfizer’s and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s) appear to be less effective but researchers are still trying to learn more and make sure future versions of their drugs can be modified to fight it.
- Spread in Canada: First case recorded in Mississauga in February. All but a few provinces have had at least one case, but nowhere near as many as B.1.1.7.
GAMMA (P.1)
- Country of origin: Brazil
- Traits: Potentially able to reinfect people who’ve recovered from COVID-19.
- Spread in Canada: B.C. has had hundreds of cases, the largest known concentration of P.1 outside Brazil. More outbreaks have been detected in Ontario and the Prairies.
DELTA (B.1.617 AND B.1.617.2)
- Country of origin: India
- Traits: Spreads more easily. Single-dosed people are less protected against it than those with both vaccine doses.
- Spread in Canada: All but a few provinces have recorded cases, but B.C.’s total has been the largest so far.
LAMBDA (C.37)
- Country of origin: Peru
- Traits: Spreads more easily. Health officials had been monitoring it since last August, but the WHO only designated it a variant of concern in June of 2021.
- Spread in Canada: A handful of travel-related cases were first detected in early July.
If I’m sick, how do I know whether I have a variant?
Health officials need to genetically sequence test samples to see whether it’s the regular virus or a variant, and not everyone’s sample will get screened. It’s safe to assume that, whatever the official variant tallies are in your province, the real numbers are higher. But for your purposes, it doesn’t matter whether you contract a variant or not: Act as though you’re highly contagious, and that you have been since before your symptoms appeared (remember, COVID-19 can be spread asymptomatically). Self-isolate for two weeks. If you have the COVID Alert app, use it to report your test result so others who may have been exposed to you will know to take precautions.
Need more answers? Email audience@globeandmail.com
The region will use mass vaccination clinics for most people and mobile units to provide shots to those in hard-hit areas determined by the province.
Peel’s latest vaccine timeline was laid out as a stay-at-home order took effect across the province on Thursday.
Is my area going back into COVID-19 lockdown? A guide to restrictions across Canada
Ontarians received emergency alerts on their cellphones, radios and televisions Thursday morning telling them to stay home.
The message, sent by the Ministry of the Solicitor General through the province’s Alert Ready broadcast system, asked people to only leave their homes for essential purposes such as food, health care, exercise or work.
The province used a similar emergency alert in January to communicate the start of a stay-at-home order when COVID-19 cases spiked at that time.
Premier Doug Ford announced the latest stay-at-home order on Wednesday, saying it was prompted by a surge in cases driven by more infectious variants.
Stores that sell goods such as groceries, cleaning supplies and pharmacy products can remain open but only to sell essential items.
Non-essential retail can open for curbside pickup or delivery only.
The province declared the third state of emergency since the start of the pandemic to invoke the new measures.
Ontario reported 3,295 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday and 19 more deaths linked to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said there are 933 new cases in Toronto, 649 in Peel Region and 386 in York Region.
She also said there are 165 new cases in Durham Region and 160 in Ottawa.
More than 63,800 tests were completed since the last report.
There are 1,417 people hospitalized in Ontario because of COVID-19, with 525 in intensive care and 318 on a ventilator.
Ontario said 108,563 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the province since Wednesday’s report.
A total of 2,834,784 vaccine doses have been given in Ontario so far.
Ontario has issued a new stay-at-home order today to fight an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases fuelled by variants of the virus. Premier Doug Ford says the order will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday morning and last for four weeks.
The Canadian Press
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