Three doses should be rule: Hirji

Local medical officer of health calls for province to expand vaccine passport requirements

Niagara Region Public Health confirmed four more local COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, including three people aged 80 or older and one in the 60 to 79 age range

It’s time for Ontario to look at expanding vaccine passport rules to require three doses to enter indoor establishments, says Niagara’s acting medical officer of health.

With Omicron continuing to drive COVID-19 caseloads in hospitals — and Ontario set to loosen restrictions aimed at preventing spread of the virus — “just having two doses is probably not enough anymore,” said Dr. Mustafa Hirji.

Starting Monday, restaurants, bars, gyms, bingo halls and theatres can resume indoor service at 50 per cent capacity, after being closed or limited to takeout-only service since Jan. 5.

Hirji fears the gradual reopening is starting too soon, warning “our hospitals are already in a very bad state.”

Easing public-health restrictions now will “allow more infection to spread and put them under even greater stress.”

Hirji’s call to enhance vaccine passport rules to three doses echoes a statement last week by an epidemiologist at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Dr. Doug Manuel told CBC News a “two-dose passport is almost worthless … You might as well just throw it away — or you bring the three-dose.”

Hirji said he and Ontario’s 33 other regional medical officers of health have discussed it and “it’s definitely a shared opinion amongst many of us, and we have let the province know that this is our best advice.”

In Niagara, about 60 per cent of people 18 and older have received their COVID-19 booster doses. Among those under 50, though, it’s closer to 33 per cent.

Niagara Health reported Wednesday that two more local residents with COVID-19 died Jan. 24. So far this month, there have been 51 COVID-19 patient deaths in local hospitals.

The number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care has changed little in the past two weeks; on Wednesday, there were 26.

However, the total number in hospital dropped to 129 Wednesday, the fewest since Jan. 10. By contrast, two days ago there were 164, the most since the start of the pandemic.

“It’s possible” that hospitalizations are peaking, based on science data that showed infections in Ontario might have topped out about two weeks ago, said Hirji.

But with limited capacity for testing and case management the picture is still unclear, he said.

“There’s been a lot of misguided talk, I think, of this being a less severe version of the virus,” he said.

“But one part that does seem accurate is that it is less likely to cause people to be in the ICU, and more like people will just need general hospital care.”

One number that is falling in Niagara Health’s favour is its declining list of employees selfisolating after exposure to COVID-19.

On Tuesday, there were 166 off work for that reason, compared to 494 on Jan. 12.

However, in that time 231 more staff tested positive for COVID-19. The total since the start of the pandemic is 1,071, or about 20 per cent of its workforce.

Niagara Region Public Health confirmed four more local COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, including three people aged 80 or older and one in the 60 to 79 age range.

Officially, 470 local deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 so far but it’s believed some of the recent hospital deaths have not been factored in yet.

Twenty-six long-term-care or retirement residences were dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks Wednesday. Niagara Health was dealing with 11 outbreaks at its St. Catharines, Welland, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie sites.