Key sentence:
- The latest action comes as Manitoba’s fourth wave intensifies, with the Southern Health region accounting for a disproportionate amount of recent cases.
- The priority, according to Reimer, is to immunise everyone who has not yet received a first and second dosage.
Manitoba is extending third-dose COVID-19 vaccination eligibility to all residents aged 18 and up, with officials emphasising that vulnerable Manitobans and those who care for them are the primary objectives.
Except in rare situations, a minimum of six months must pass between the second and third doses, according to provincial officials in a news release issued Wednesday.
“Right now, a combination of declining immunity for some people and too many people who have been unvaccinated is a health concern that we want to minimise as much as possible,” said Dr Joss Reimer, medical head of Manitoba’s vaccine task group, during a press conference.
According to Reimer, the revelation marks a change away from eligibility-based criteria for determining who can and cannot obtain a booster dose.
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The latest action comes as Manitoba’s fourth wave intensifies, with the Southern Health region accounting for a disproportionate amount of recent cases. Although it only has 15% of Manitoba’s population, it has roughly half of the province’s active cases.
As per the internal provincial data disclosed to the CBC, the region’s test positivity rate topped 15.6 per cent on Wednesday, compared to 3.4 per cent in Winnipeg and 6.2 per cent across the province.
With slightly over 68 per cent of eligible persons immunised, Southern Health has the lowest vaccination rate of the five Manitoba regions. Prairie Mountain comes in second with a score of approximately 82 per cent.
Though vaccines provide good protection, Reimer stressed that they aren’t perfect; even after two doses, they can become infected or transfer COVID-19.
On any given day, however, she said that infection rates in unvaccinated Manitobans are six to nine times higher, and hospitalisation rates are ten to twenty times higher.
“It’s a huge difference,” she explained.
Extra dose
The priority, according to Reimer, is to immunise everyone who has not yet received a first and second dosage.
Third dosages are indicated primarily for people at a higher risk of serious results, such as hospitalisation and life loss and those who work with vulnerable patients.
Health-care workers, persons over the age of 70, people living in personal care homes or communal settings such as assisted living, pregnant women, and Indigenous people are affected.
In addition, people with certain chronic health issues, such as heart or pulmonary illnesses, diabetes, obesity, and various other conditions specified on the province’s eligibility homepage, are also eligible.
According to Reimer, evidence shows that those at higher risk of negative effects have fading immunity faster than other groups, emphasising the importance of getting third doses.
Adults will be ready to get the shots only at pharmacies and medical clinics. As well, although the Janssen vaccine was supposed to be a “one and done” vaccination, Manitoba officials now urge that patients who receive it get a second dose of one of the two mRNA-based vaccines.
Source: CBC
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