Ontario is set to make a decision early next week on whether to expand eligibility of fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines, amid a seventh wave of the virus, the province’s top doctor said Thursday.Ontario has been under pressure to expand eligibility for fourth doses of a COVID-19 vaccine beyond people aged 60 and older, immunocompromised people and Indigenous populations, as Quebec has done.
That province has opened up eligibility to all adults.Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said in an interview that he anticipates news on that will come next week on “both whether and how” to expand the rollout, but he said he is most concerned about the number of people who have not had a third dose yet.
COVID-19: How bivalent vaccines could help protect against new variants “Of those five million that haven’t had even their first booster, many of whom it’s well after six months since their last dose, one million of them are over 50 years of age and we know age is a really significant risk factor for COVID, severe outcomes and hospitalization,” Moore said.“So we’re asking first before we open up any further that one million, well all five million but one million over 50 who haven’t come forward, please consider getting vaccinated in the month of July.”For people 59 and under a second booster may not give significant protection against severe outcomes because they were not at risk for severe outcomes to begin with, Moore said.“We always do a risk-based strategy and a risk-based communication on the immunization rollout and if those (currently eligible) groups stop coming forward, and we see volumes of patients coming forward to be immunized are decreasing, we will increase the eligibility criteria,” he said.Ontario and.