Prince Edward Island is offering the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to young people aged 18 to 29 who work in gas stations and convenience or grocery stores.
Today’s announcement comes after the province opened AstraZeneca vaccination appointments last week to young people in that cohort in the food and beverage sector.
Dr. Heather Morrison, the province’s chief public health officer, said today 78 per cent of outbreaks on the Island have involved people aged 18 to 29, adding that 60 per cent of cases have involved people in their 20s and 30s.
Chief of nursing Marion Dowling told reporters mass vaccination clinics will be opening in O’Leary, Summerside, Charlottetown, Montague and Souris starting March 29.
While shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have been ensured, Morrison says PEI is still waiting for confirmation regarding deliveries of the recently approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
PEI is reporting one new COVID-19 case today involving a man in his 20s who travelled outside Atlantic Canada. The province has four active reported infections.
Canada pre-purchased millions of doses of seven different vaccine types, and Health Canada has approved four so far for the various provincial and territorial rollouts. All the drugs are fully effective in preventing serious illness and death, though some may do more than others to stop any symptomatic illness at all (which is where the efficacy rates cited below come in).
- Also known as: Comirnaty
- Approved on: Dec. 9, 2020
- Efficacy rate: 95 per cent with both doses in patients 16 and older, and 100 per cent in 12- to 15-year-olds
- Traits: Must be stored at -70 C, requiring specialized ultracold freezers. It is a new type of mRNA-based vaccine that gives the body a sample of the virus’s DNA to teach immune systems how to fight it. Health Canada has authorized it for use in people as young as 12.
- Also known as: SpikeVax
- Approved on: Dec. 23, 2020
- Efficacy rate: 94 per cent with both doses in patients 18 and older, and 100 per cent in 12- to 17-year-olds
- Traits: Like Pfizer’s vaccine, this one is mRNA-based, but it can be stored at -20 C. It’s approved for use in Canada for ages 12 and up.
- Also known as: Vaxzevria
- Approved on: Feb. 26, 2021
- Efficacy rate: 62 per cent two weeks after the second dose
- Traits: This comes in two versions approved for Canadian use, the kind made in Europe and the same drug made by a different process in India (where it is called Covishield). The National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s latest guidance is that its okay for people 30 and older to get it if they can’t or don’t want to wait for an mRNA vaccine, but to guard against the risk of a rare blood-clotting disorder, all provinces have stopped giving first doses of AstraZeneca.
- Also known as: Janssen
- Approved on: March 5, 2021
- Efficacy rate: 66 per cent two weeks after the single dose
- Traits: Unlike the other vaccines, this one comes in a single injection. NACI says it should be offered to Canadians 30 and older, but Health Canada paused distribution of the drug for now as it investigates inspection concerns at a Maryland facility where the active ingredient was made.
How many vaccine doses do I get?
All vaccines except Johnson & Johnson’s require two doses, though even for double-dose drugs, research suggests the first shots may give fairly strong protection. This has led health agencies to focus on getting first shots to as many people as possible, then delaying boosters by up to four months. To see how many doses your province or territory has administered so far, check our vaccine tracker for the latest numbers.
Canada's top doctor Theresa Tam says there is a need to collect and analyze data on the new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 to avoid new outbreaks. Tam says looking at the data coming from other countries is important but is not enough.
The Canadian Press
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
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