A sign for a COVID-19 vaccination clinic, in Montreal, on Feb. 21, 2021.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Quebec will begin vaccinating the general population next week, beginning with Montreal-area seniors aged 85 and up, Premier Francois Legault said Tuesday.
All seniors in the province born in 1936 or earlier will be able to make an appointment for vaccination through an online portal or by telephone as early as Thursday, Legault told reporters at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, a future mass vaccination site.
The vaccination campaign will begin in Montreal, however, where the greatest number of active reported infections in the province are found.
Legault said the government’s vaccination plan is well under way: all long-term care residents, about half of residents in seniors homes and almost 200,000 health-care workers have received a first dose. The province has not begun giving booster shots.
All of Quebec’s oldest and most vulnerable seniors should be vaccinated within a few weeks, the premier said. “We finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not so far away.”
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
Legault, however, said Quebecers must continue to be careful, warning that it takes about three weeks for the vaccine to reach full effectiveness. In the meantime, Quebec will have to contend with an ever-rising number of coronavirus variant cases, as well as a spring break week that authorities fear could cause new cases to bound upwards.
“What happened during the holiday must not happen, with people gathering,” he said about Quebecers getting together over the Christmas and New Year’s period, which preceded a rise in cases. “Nobody wants a third wave.”
Health Minister Christian Dube said on Twitter that Quebec is expecting to receive more than 107,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 28,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week, which he said will allow the province to accelerate the pace of immunizations.
Dube said vaccinations for the 85-and-up cohort should be complete within two weeks, after which the province will continue with other age groups, from oldest to youngest. Those with underlying health conditions will also be prioritized, he added.
All Quebecers who want the vaccine should receive it by September, as long as deliveries keep up, he said.
Dube said the province has enough staff to administer the vaccines at the rate they’re currently arriving but is looking to train an additional 1,000 vaccinators for an expected ramp-up later in the spring.
The province has also approached large companies to see if they are willing to deliver vaccines on-site when the vaccination campaign expands, Legault said.
Quebec reported 739 new cases Tuesday and 13 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, including one that occurred in the past 24 hours. COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped by nine, to 680, and the number of intensive care patients rose by three, to 120.
The number of suspected cases of coronavirus variants continued to rise on Monday, up to 484 from 415 the day prior, according to Quebec’s government-mandated public health institute. The number of confirmed cases remained unchanged at 23.
Dube said about 10 per cent of positive COVID-19 tests are coming back as suspected variant cases, which he said is in line with Ontario.
Quebec has reported a total of 10,330 deaths linked to the virus and 283,666 infections.
Legault also raised the prospect of further easing restrictions to allow indoor sports to resume and concert halls and churches to reopen in the coming weeks, but he said he wants to wait to see what happens with the spread of new variants and the spring break week.
Quebec will open cinemas, pools and arenas ahead of the spring break which begins March 1.
The Canadian Press
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