toronto: Canadian health authorities are asking citizens to receive a booster dose of a covid-19 vaccine, amid an increase in the number of cases of Omicron’s XBB.1.5 subvariant.
On Friday, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) issued new guidance that strongly recommends that people age 12 and older be offered at least one booster shot if they are at increased risk of severe disease.
NACI also said that bivalent mRNA vaccines should be “the preferred booster products for all persons 5 years of age and older.” Such vaccines target both the original Wuhan strain of coronavirus and the Omicron variant. They have been available in Canada since September of last year.
The recommendation to increase the consumption of booster doses comes as the percentage of cases caused by subvariant XBB.1.5 is expected to increase to 7% of the total this month, while it was detected with a frequency of 2.5% between December 25 and January. 2.
“While XBB variants are expected to increase in Canada, it is not known if they will become the dominant lineage,” said Canada’s director of public health, Dr. Theresa Tam.
However, concerns about a sharp increase in cases caused by Omicron in early 2022 remain low. As Tam said, “Nationwide, the absolute number of cases is not increasing at this time, nor is there evidence of increased severity with this or other new variants.”
Preventive measures should be enough not to cause widespread infections.
In 2022, the Omicron variant resulted in the highest number of infections in Canada to date. However, over time there has been a general trend toward a decline in serious outcomes, such as intensive care admissions and deaths among hospitalized patients, he noted. This may reflect the impact of vaccine-induced immunity and infection, changes in the characteristics of infected persons, and changes in circulating strains.
He added that “it was still too early to stop taking the personal protection measures that have helped us weather the Covid storm.”
According to the latest update, Canada added 16,540 cases in the week ending January 16.
