TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada is shifting its vaccination campaign to target frontline workers, moving away from a largely age-based implementation as the country seeks to master the raging third wave of the pandemic.
Canada’s approach so far has many so-called ‘essential workers’, such as daycare providers, bus drivers and meat packers, who have not been vaccinated, all of whom are at risk of sending COVID-19. Provinces are now trying to adapt their strategy to tackle the boom driven by new variants.
Simon Fraser University mathematician and epidemiologist Caroline Colijn, who modeled Canadian immunization strategies and found: “the sooner you deploy essential workers [in the vaccine rollout plan], the better. “
Initially, Canada prioritized long-term caregivers and staff for the vaccines, as well as many seniors, health workers, residents of remote communities, and indigenous peoples.
Colijn said the vaccinations, according to age, made sense early on in a pandemic that plagued Canada’s long-term care facilities. But now it’s the biggest benefit to immunize those who are most at risk for transmission.
‘If you protect these individuals, you’re also protecting someone in their 60s whose only risk is if they go to the store. … The variants are here now. If we turn now, but it takes us two months to do so, we lose the race. ‘
Data released Tuesday by the Institute of Clinical and Evaluative Sciences showed that Toronto’s neighborhoods with the highest COVID-19 infections had the lowest vaccination rates, highlighting the differences in vaccination.
“THIS IS A YOUTH NUT”
Ontario’s premier Doug Ford on Wednesday announced a plan to have mobile vaccine clinics focus on COVID-19 “hotspots” and high-risk workplaces, though he was no longer given paid time to get the chance.
Karim Kurji, medical officer for health in the York region north of Toronto, characterizes shifting the vaccination priority from age to transfer risk rather than moving from defense to offense.
“It’s a juggernaut in terms of the vaccination machinery, and it’s a lot of effort to turn it around,” Kurji said.
Meanwhile, officials in the western province of Alberta say they are vaccinating more than 2,000 workers at Cargill’s meat packaging plant in High River, where one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks is taking place in Canada. Provincial officials said in a statement that they wanted to expand the pilot to other plants.
Quebec will begin vaccinating essential workers, such as those in education, child care and public safety, in Montreal, where neighborhoods with the highest vaccination rates were among those with the lowest recorded infection rates.
The health experts say that people who do the work at the highest risk are, from an infectious disease perspective, poor, non-white and new Canadians. They are less likely to have paid leave to be tested or vaccinated or stay home if they are ill, and they are likely to live in a busy or multi-unit housing. They need to be given priority for vaccination and their vaccination barriers need to be addressed, experts say.
Naheed Dosani, a palliative medicine in Toronto and health justice activist, said it was not enough to make vaccines available to high-risk communities without addressing barriers to entry.
‘The face of COVID-19 and who is affected has changed dramatically. The variants seem to be gaining ground in communities where essential workers live. … This [pivot] is a step in the right direction and will hopefully save lives. ”
Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Edited by Denny Thomas and Aurora Ellis