A man waits for a bus next to a public health information sign in Toronto, on Dec. 1, 2020.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The top doctor for one of Ontario’s COVID-19 hot spots says paid sick days and relief for businesses could be built into the province’s pandemic response system to help mitigate a third wave.
Peel Region’s Dr. Lawrence Loh says resistance to strict public-health measures often stems from lack of relief.
He says the province should consider looking at how support policies could be part of Ontario’s tiered restrictions system, taking effect when regions are in certain categories.
The government did not immediately respond to requests for comment but has previously said that it isn’t looking to implement its own sick-leave policy because some relief is available through a federal benefit.
Dr. Loh’s suggestions came during a discussion hosted by the Ontario Medical Association that looked ahead to the next stage of the pandemic.
COVID-19 is caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2, and as it spread around the world, it mutated into new forms that are more quickly and easily transmitted through small water droplets in the air. Canadian health officials are most worried about variants that can slip past human immune systems because of a different shape in the spiky protein that latches onto our cells. The bigger fear is that future mutations could be vaccine-resistant, which would make it necessary to tweak existing drugs or develop a new “multivalent” vaccine that works against many types, which could take months or years.
Not all variants are considered equal threats: Only those proven to be more contagious or resistant to physical-distancing measures are considered by the World Health Organization to be “variants of concern.” Five of these been found in Canada so far. The WHO refers to them by a sequence of letters and numbers known as Pango nomenclature, but in May of 2021, it also assigned them Greek letters that experts felt would be easier to remember.
ALPHA (B.1.1.7)
- Country of origin: Britain
- Traits: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are still mostly effective against it, studies suggest, but for full protection, the booster is essential: With only a first dose, the effectiveness is only about 66 per cent.
- Spread in Canada: First detected in Ontario’s Durham Region in December. It is now Canada’s most common variant type. Every province has had at least one case; Ontario, Quebec and the western provinces have had thousands.
BETA (B.1.351)
- Country of origin: South Africa
- Traits: Some vaccines (including Pfizer’s and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s) appear to be less effective but researchers are still trying to learn more and make sure future versions of their drugs can be modified to fight it.
- Spread in Canada: First case recorded in Mississauga in February. All but a few provinces have had at least one case, but nowhere near as many as B.1.1.7.
GAMMA (P.1)
- Country of origin: Brazil
- Traits: Potentially able to reinfect people who’ve recovered from COVID-19.
- Spread in Canada: B.C. has had hundreds of cases, the largest known concentration of P.1 outside Brazil. More outbreaks have been detected in Ontario and the Prairies.
DELTA (B.1.617 AND B.1.617.2)
- Country of origin: India
- Traits: Spreads more easily. Single-dosed people are less protected against it than those with both vaccine doses.
- Spread in Canada: All but a few provinces have recorded cases, but B.C.’s total has been the largest so far.
LAMBDA (C.37)
- Country of origin: Peru
- Traits: Spreads more easily. Health officials had been monitoring it since last August, but the WHO only designated it a variant of concern in June of 2021.
- Spread in Canada: A handful of travel-related cases were first detected in early July.
If I’m sick, how do I know whether I have a variant?
Health officials need to genetically sequence test samples to see whether it’s the regular virus or a variant, and not everyone’s sample will get screened. It’s safe to assume that, whatever the official variant tallies are in your province, the real numbers are higher. But for your purposes, it doesn’t matter whether you contract a variant or not: Act as though you’re highly contagious, and that you have been since before your symptoms appeared (remember, COVID-19 can be spread asymptomatically). Self-isolate for two weeks. If you have the COVID Alert app, use it to report your test result so others who may have been exposed to you will know to take precautions.
Need more answers? Email audience@globeandmail.com
The medical association has called for Ontario to tighten COVID-19 restrictions in light of more infectious variants spreading in the province.
The group representing physicians has recommended banning indoor restaurant dining and other non-masked indoor activities for regions in the red tier of the province’s pandemic system.
Dr. Loh and his counterpart in Toronto sought to extend strict shutdown measures and a stay-at-home order for their regions last week, arguing the spread of variants and recent reopening of schools made it too risky to ease restrictions.
The province granted their request, extending the strictest measures for those two regions, as well as North Bay, until March 8.
The COVID-19 hot spot of York Region, however, saw restrictions ease as it was moved to the red, or second-strictest, tier of the province’s pandemic response system.
York’s top doctor had sought the loosening of measures, saying his region was not seeing “explosive growth” of variants that were first detected in December.
Dr. Karim Kurji said last week that there was a “reasonable handle” on variant cases, arguing the need for strong measures needed to be balanced with economic and mental well-being.
The province’s economic reopening began earlier this month. The government has said, however, that it has created an “emergency brake” measure that allows it to swiftly move regions into lockdown if cases spike.
On Tuesday, the Opposition called for the government to clearly define what would trigger the use of that brake measure.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the government loosened public-health restrictions too soon, without a clearly defined plan.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner also expressed confusion over the parameters of the measure.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said the measure considers a public-health unit’s increase in case numbers, variants of concern and health system capacity.
She argued it was used when the province decided last week to keep Toronto, Peel Region and North Bay under the stay-at-home order for two more weeks.
Ontario reported 975 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and 12 more deaths from the virus.
The province said 16,252 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered since the previous update, for a total of 585,707 doses.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he knows Canadians are tired of the pandemic but the new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 circulating in Canada mean we have to keep at the hard work even longer.
The Canadian Press
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