High-risk groups can get updated COVID, flu shots; everyone else Oct. 30
Those now eligible include people who are 65+, pregnant or racialized
While Quebec residents can now get updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines, the general public in Ottawa will have to wait a few more weeks.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) said in a statement it is waiting for an additional shipment of vaccines in order to make them more widely available.
As of Wednesday, several higher risk groups are eligible for the vaccines. The rest of the city will become eligible on Oct. 30.
"We want to protect people most at risk for the complications of COVID and influenza. We're rolling both these vaccines out at the same time to those groups that are at higher risk," said Dr. Vera Etches, OPH's medical officer of health.
OPH received its first shipment of the updated vaccines the final week of September and began distributing them to hospitals and long-term care homes.
Health-care workers and first responders are now eligible for the vaccines, according to the OPH website, as are groups at higher risk of complications due to flu or COVID-19.
Those groups include residents and staff in congregate care settings, people age 65 or older or age six months to five years old, people who are pregnant or are members of racialized communities.
In Quebec, people in long-term care homes and private seniors' residences have been able to get the latest COVID vaccine since Oct. 2. Everyone else in that province became eligible for the shots Tuesday.
In a statement, the Ontario Ministry of Health said the province received its first shipment of the Moderna XBB.1.5 vaccine on Sept. 22, and is awaiting shipments of the Pfizer XBB.1.5 vaccine recently approved by Health Canada.
'We're knee deep in COVID'
Raywat Deonandan, epidemiologist and professor of health sciences at the University of Ottawa, said the delay in Ontario doesn't necessarily mean Quebec's infection rate will be lower.
"I don't know what the desire for this vaccination is with the general population," Deonandan said. "If you make it widely available and nobody wants it, does that really matter?"
It also comes down to supply, he said: the shots should be made widely available but if there isn't enough to dole out, those who are more likely to suffer from infection should be prioritized.
OPH said it's a high-risk time for respiratory illness in the city and it's expecting this respiratory virus season to be similar to its last, when COVID-19, flu and RSV surged at the same time to press health-care staff and the health system to the point the Red Cross had to help.
It isn't seeing a rise in influenza right now, but expects the flu to circulate more widely in the coming weeks. The health unit is encouraging people to get the flu shot — which Etches said can be safely done at the same time as the new COVID shot.
While that would mean two different needles in the arm, Deonandan said any short-term discomfort is worth it for long-term protection during the respiratory season.
"There's a lot of respiratory virus activity going out there. It's really early in the RSV season. It's early in the flu season, but there are certainly flu cases," Deonandan said. "We're probably knee deep in COVID."
What's different with this COVID-19 shot?
Deonandan said the current COVID vaccine is different from the previous version and is expected to produce a stronger immune response against the variants currently circulating.
"The previous version was the bivalent, which included a strain of Omicron and the original Wuhan strain. This is a monovalent that targets a descendant of Omicron," Deonandan said.
In line with the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), OPH is echoing the Ontario Ministry of Health recommendation that individuals should receive a dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine if it has been six months since their last COVID vaccine or known COVID infection.
Both the flu shot and updated COVID-19 vaccine are available at OPH community clinics, pharmacies, OPH Neighbourhood Health and Wellness Hubs and some health care providers.
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