Despite high COVID levels in Ottawa, booster uptake remains low

Health officials are encouraging more people to roll up their sleeves, after booster dose uptake is lagging.

Ottawa Public Health is encouraging more people to roll up their sleeves to get the COVID-19 shot after recent data shows that the booster dose uptake is low.

National data shows that only 17 per cent of Canadians have received a booster shot in the last six months.

In Ottawa, the numbers are slightly higher. Twenty-eight per recent of residents 12 years of age or older have received at least four doses.

Phil Jansson, Program Manager for Health Information and Public Engagement for Ottawa Public Health, says, "We are encouraged by the rates of vaccination and the Ottawa residents who have rolled up their sleeves to get their fall boosters.

"But we know we have a lot of work ahead of us to increase our rates of vaccination in our community. More vaccination means more members in our community are protected against COVID-19."

Jansson says, “Our bivalent boosters increase the diversity of protection individuals can have against the circulation omicron variants."

Health Canada has approved a bivalent vaccine from both Moderna and Pfizer, and both are available at community clinics. You may be able to choose which one you receive depending on the available stock, but OPH says the best one – is the available one.

"We have no evidence to show one vaccine has a stronger protection against COVID-19; we encourage everyone to get a fall booster- whether that is Moderna or Pfizer," Jansson says.

OPH says it is a challenge to keep COVID-19 "front and centre" nearly three years into the pandemic.

Jansson says, "Some challenges we see is there is so much information out there, so we try to condense it for folks. Our website is a wealth of information that can let residents know about what vaccines are best, which vaccines they are eligible for, how long they need to wait in between vaccination."

OPH is creating neighbourhood wellness hubs in the community where there are lower rates of vaccines.

"Residents with questions can pop in and ask questions to a public nurse and if they are ready- get their vaccine right on the spot," Jansson said.

COVID-19 levels in the community remain high. This week OPH reported seven new deaths due to the virus, while 367 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported.

"Our monitoring indicators continue to show that the levels of COVID-19 circulating in the community are high," Ottawa Public Health said in its weekly COVID-19 snapshot.

Some health experts are concerned, saying it puts people at greater risks as new variants arrive.

Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth is a family physician. Throughout the pandemic, Kaplan-Myrth has held 'Jabapalooza' events which offer mass vaccine clinics for eligible residents.

Kaplan-Myrth says low vaccine rates could be because of "misinformation" that the pandemic is over.

"I don’t think people are getting their vaccine because they are misinformed. They have been told that COVID is over and have been referring to it in the past tense, and they don’t understand how many patients are sick every day, and how many are ending up in hospital."

Kaplan-Myrth adds "Many of our patients have had their boosters, most of them have stepped up and wanted their bivalent as soon as it was available. Some of them because they had COVID-19 have had to wait, others just got their booster so are waiting 84 days before their bivalent vaccines."

Kaplan-Myrth says next week she will be vaccinating teens for their bivalent boosters and is also providing flu shots for her patient.

Kaplan-Myrth says people should always wear masks, and continue to stay home when they are sick, especially with the presence of other viruses circulating in the community.

For more information from Ottawa Public Health, you can visit their website.

To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, click here.