Ontario to provide update on access to 4th COVID-19 vaccine doses, rapid tests
CBC
Ontario's chief medical officer of health is set to make an announcement Wednesday about expanded access to fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines and the future of the province's free rapid antigen test program.
Dr. Kieran Moore is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m. ET from Queen's Park. You can watch the news conference live in this story.
The Ontario government has been under pressure in recent weeks to expand age eligibility for fourth doses of vaccine as the province deals with a seventh wave of the pandemic fuelled by the highly infectious Omicron BA.5 subvariant.
Currently, only people aged 60 and older, long-term care or retirement home residents, and Indigenous people are among the select groups who can get a fourth dose or second booster in the province.
Some six million Ontarians who had a third dose of vaccine have been unable to get a fourth, Moore said.
Booster shots temporarily increase protection against severe outcomes from the illness to about 90 per cent, Moore said last week, but that protection wanes month over month. By five months, protection against severe health outcomes falls to roughly 70 per cent.
Moore had previously said the province's main focus was on getting third doses to all eligible adults. About five million Ontarians have not yet had a first booster, including about a million Ontarians over 50, Moore said.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital, said he expects the province will open eligibility for fourth shots to all adults who had a third dose at least six months ago. He added, however, that it may not make sense for all adults to rush out to get a second booster just yet.
"We know there are updated vaccines coming through the pipeline very soon, that will be available here in Canada likely in the fall. And they're tailored to the Omicron variant as well," he told CBC Radio's Metro Morning.
Whether a fourth dose is right for a particular individual right now is dependent on a complex set of considerations, including vaccination history, infection history and underlying risk factors.
"There's probably a lot of people for whom it's better for them to not get a fourth dose right now and to wait until the fall," Bogoch said.
He added that the primary focus should remain on getting third doses to all those eligible and a fourth to those most susceptible to severe infection.
"If you wanted to come up with the single biggest effort in terms of what would help us right now, in July, it would be getting people that third dose who are eligible and really focusing on at-risk communities and at-risk individuals who have risk factors for severe infection for that fourth dose," Bogoch said.
"That is by far, by far, the most bang for your buck right now."
