‘Temporary’ could be up to a year

Vaccine passports needed until there is enough immunity: Hirji

While Ontario’s new vaccine certificate program may be a temporary measure to prevent another lockdown, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health says it will likely remain in place at least until next summer.

“I think we all expect this is going to be a temporary measure until we get to the point where COVID-19 is endemic in our population and is no longer a pandemic that can blow out of control, but temporary means we’re probably looking at nine to 12 months or something,” Dr. Mustafa Hirji said. “It’s going to be a while. It’s not just going to be a few weeks.”

While providing an update on the vaccination certificate program as it went into effect on Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford called it “a temporary and exceptional measure” to prevent another lockdown or significant increase in the spread of the coronavirus.

He said the program will end based on the advice of Ontario chief medical officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore and the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.

“Hopefully, it will be sooner than later,” Ford added.

In an interview, Hirji said the program needs to continue until Ontario gets to the point where “we have enough immunity out in society that we’re not going to have the possibility of surges of cases and what Alberta is, unfortunately, dealing with, where they run out of hospital beds because so many people get hospitalized with COVID-19.”

He said that immunity will either be the result of getting enough people vaccinated so that the virus won’t be able to spread through the community, or through natural immunity when enough people become infected.

“Obviously, it’s much better that people get that immunity through vaccinations, and the faster we get everyone vaccinated the shorter we will need to have those restrictions in place,” he said.

“But I would expect that we’re going to see them until next summer at least.”

During his update, Ford said enforcement of the program “will lead with education and will be reasonable to business owners.”

Niagara Region spokesperson Andrew Korchok said its bylaw officers are dealing with the new certificate program requirements in a similar way to when the face-covering bylaw first came into effect last year.

He said bylaw officers “will be taking an educational approach to working with businesses as the requirements roll out.”

“We recognize this is a new and different process for many businesses, and we’ll be working with them to help them understand the requirements to make sure they can successfully comply with the legislation,” he said. “We’ll also be working alongside our counterparts at the local area municipalities to ensure this approach is consistent.”

Hirji acknowledged the impact the requirement will have on affected businesses and their staff, who will bear the brunt of implementing it.

“They’re going to need to have someone available to check some- one’s vaccine records as they’re coming in and find a way to get through that quickly, so you don’t have a big lineup,” he said. “There’s going to no doubt be some people who are angry they have to show their vaccine records and … be ready to deal with those angry people.”

Hirji said public health has provided advice for businesses on implementing the program.

He said the guidance provided by the province “is pretty selfexplanatory,” but the complicated part is “reorientating how your business works to have that front of house person who is going to be screening people before they come in.”

While some businesses may have an easier time of implementing the program, Hirji said “it’s not necessarily going to be a natural fit for everybody.”

Vaccine certificates can be downloaded at covid19.ontariohealth.ca for most people, but those who still have red and white health cards can call 1-833-943-3900 to have receipts emailed to them.

The program was also intended to help increase vaccine uptake. During the past two days the region has seen a significant increase in vaccinations.

Hirji said most of the people who are now getting vaccinated booked those appointments weeks ago, despite being advised they could get vaccinated earlier.

For people who are only now getting vaccinated, it’s already too late.

Public health has been warning people for the past three weeks they needed to get their second dose prior to the launch of the certificate program because it takes a few weeks for the vaccines to take effect.

“I don’t really know what the thinking there is. Maybe people didn’t understand they needed it then,” Hirji said.