While some provinces are planning to remove public health restrictions and proof of vaccination requirements in the coming days, experts say the move may be "a bit rushed" as the country is not yet out of the Omicron wave.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are rolling back COVID-19 restrictions this week, and other provinces including Ontario, Quebec and B.C. are expected to loosen restrictions even further by the end of February.
Dr. Peter Juni, scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said that while the Omicron wave has peaked, it’s still too soon to tell how the virus will react as the wave plateaus.
"We’ve reached this plateau, now we just need to figure out during the next week to 10 days where this is going. Does [the wave] basically stay stable? Does it go up again? And if it goes up, how steep is the slope of this uphill?" Juni told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday.
"We just need to make sure that we can ride out this wave without the strain on our health-care system."
- Newsletter sign-up: Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox
Reacting to Alberta and Saskatchewan’s announcements on Tuesday to remove proof of vaccination requirements, Juni said the decision seems "a bit rushed," given how these provinces suffered during the Delta waxjmtzywve of the pandemic.
"Alberta didn’t fare that well," Juni said. "Ontario did much better – why? – because we took it stepwise, slow, and we let the data speak, and we should do that again now."
Juni said provinces are now in a position to consider lifting restrictions because the restrictions that are currently in place have helped case numbers trend downward.
Comparing the state of the pandemic in Ontario in December 2021 to now, Juni said public health measures and increased vaccination rates have helped stem the impact of Omicron.
"Since then, we have had 4.7 million people who received their third dose and we have probably had about 3 million people get infected, meaning they have a lot of background immunity, which will help us now in the short term to keep things under control," he said.
Juni added that proof of vaccination was "never" a measure that was meant to stay long-term, however, he said now may not be the time to get rid of the measure in Ontario. He added that other provinces should do so cautiously.
"This is something which will be lifted relatively soon, it’s just about riding out this wave," he said.
GETTING RID OF PASSPORTS MAY DROP VACCINATION RATES
Alberta intensive care physician and nephrologist Dr. Darren Markland told CTV News Channel on Wednesday that hospitals in the province are "still overwhelmed," and COVID-19 case numbers have not dropped enough to validate the removal of vaccine passports.
"I think what’s important here is maintaining the course," he explained. "If this theory that things are going to get better and this virus will attenuate bears out, then we’ll be prepared and we will see numbers truly decrease and hospitals depressurized."
Markland said the decision to remove restrictions in Alberta is "not based on science," but rather "political will."
"[We’re] starting to see, at least in our province, strong pressure from very vocal minority protests to push and roll back restrictions that have been working to maintain hospitals in a functional state," he said.
Markland said that Omicron will likely not be the final variant of the pandemic, and some public health measures will need to be maintained to stem future waves and keep hospitals functioning.
He added that some Canadians and provincial officials are "in denial" that "we’re going to get back to normal really quickly" by easing restrictions.
"This virus could mutate and be more severe, and as a result, it’s essential to maintain vaccine-mediated immunity," he said.
While different policies have been implemented to ensure this, Markland said the only one that has shown to be effective is vaccine passports.
"So to revoke that means that in the future, we will see our vaccination rates drop and our community immunity start to drop as well," he said.
PROVINCES DON’T DECIDE WHEN A PANDEMIC ENDS
Dr. Alexander Wong, an infectious diseases physician in Regina, says it was "inevitable" that restrictions would be eased soon, however, he said most healthcare workers would have liked to have a bit more time beforehand.
With hospitalization numbers still increasing and ICU capacity continuing to dwindle, Wong told CTV News Channel on Tuesday that staff will be left to deal with the fallout of easing measures too quickly.
"Truthfully, I think if you ask anyone from the public health perspective here in Saskatchewan and Alberta, most people would probably say that it’s too early," he said. "In an ideal world, we would have had a few more weeks at least with our proof of vaccine program and other mandates in place, but it is what it is, and we’re going to have to figure out a way to move forward."
Wong said that both of these Prairie provinces are "about a week or two" behind those in Eastern Canada in regards to the Omicron wave, and likely still experience spikes in infection numbers.
"We realize that all of this was going to happen… We were just kind of hoping for as much time as we could get till we could see very clearly that hospitalizations and ICUs were on a clear downswing and that we had peaked before all this had occurred," he said.
University of Saskatchewan epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine told CTV News Channel on Tuesday it seems to him that Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is trying to dictate the end of the pandemic by quickly easing restrictions.
While some Canadians and provincial health officials may think they’ve arrived at the end of the pandemic, Muhajarine noted the data does not yet support this.
"We cannot just wake up one day and tell ourselves that we have now entered an endemic stage of a pandemic, that’s not how pandemics work," Muhajarine said. "We cannot just impose what is a natural phenomenon… And that is what I’m seeing a bit of."
Muhajarine said the announcement is "very consistent" with Saskatchewan’s overall handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the province is "first to lift any measures that keep people safe and protected, and [is] last or never to introduce any measures when they are needed."
He added that announcing the easing of restrictions as protesters continue to protest all COVID-19 mandates in the nation’s capitol is "atrocious."
"By making this announcement while our capital is under siege and laws [are] being broken, it is plain to see that [Moe] is playing right into the hands of people who are trying to make policies in anti-democratic ways," Muhajarine said.
RELATED IMAGESview larger image
FILE – People enjoy a beer and food in Leopold’s Tavern in Edmonton on Thursday June 10, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
