New vaccination system, shifting from age-related priority
Like other nations around the world, Canada now includes frontline workers in the new vaccination rollouts. Previously, priority was given to the senior citizens. As the Covid-19 third wave continues to ravage most parts of the world, Canada hopes to vaccine more people. This new move has left thousands of essential workers like meatpackers, bus drivers, and daycare providers unvaccinated. According to health experts, this strategy aims to lower the number of new variants of coronavirus cases.
Caroline Colijn, an epidemiologist at Simon Fraser University, has noted that “Vaccinating frontline workers and dealing with occupation risks is essential in helping Canada keep the third wave under control.” Caroline is confident that when a significant percentage of essential workers get the vaccine, the better it will be in curbing the contagious variants of Covid-19.
Targeting regions with high Covid-19 cases
Before, priority to get the vaccine had been given to senior citizens, elderly nursing homes, health workers, and indigenous communities. When the pandemic started early last year, most cases were reported in the senior citizens’ nursing homes and among the older people in the population. This prompted the need to them getting the vaccine as soon as it was available. However, the third wave calls for a shift to target people at the highest risk of transmission. Given that the new strains are highly contagious, quick action must be taken to prevent burdening the health sector.
Recently, Ontario Premier Doug Ford shared the plan to have mobile vaccination sites in “hot spot” areas. In Toronto, a medical officer of health shares that the latest shift from age-related vaccination system to target group transforms from “defense to offense.”
More than 2000 meatpackers in Alberta will receive the vaccine. This comes after the workplace in High River reported the highest numbers of newly infected cases. Provincial health officials will expand the pilot vaccine campaign to other work sites. Quebec will start inoculating essential workers in the Montreal regions’ education, public safety, and childcare sectors.
Poor people unlikely to get paid-leave
A new study by Canadian health experts, most people whose jobs are high risk, are likely to be poor, people of color, and new immigrants. Reports indicate that these people have fewer chances of getting paid leave to get vaccinated or stay at home after getting sick. Similarly, most of these people live in communal houses with poor hygienic standards, further increasing the risks of acquiring and spreading coronavirus. The new move to have most essential workers vaccinated is hoped to save more lives and prevent coronavirus’s rapid spread.
