4th Dose Roll-Out Features A New Message

Jeff Green | Jul 20, 2022

Public Health messaging accompanying COVID vaccine roll-outs has been consistent, Ontarians have been told that their best option has been to seek out any dose that they are eligible for.

But that has changed with the roll-out of the second booster shot. Earlier this spring, eligibility was extended to those who are 60 and over, and more dramatically this week, when all adults over 18 became eligible.

“The nuanced part of public messaging about the 4th dose eligibility relates to how diverse the population, that is now eligible, is. It includes young adults who may otherwise be perfectly healthy and whose life circumstances do not involve caring for individuals with underlying health conditions, and it includes older adults and those who may have an underlying illness themselves,” said Dr. Piotr Oglaza, Medical Officer of Health for Kingston Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, in a media call last Thursday (July 14).

People who are less at risk from serious illness may decide to wait for their 4th dose even though they are eligible now,” Oglaza said, “but for others it would be prudent to seek out the vaccine immediately. The new eligibility offers those options, based on personal circumstances.”

Dr. Oglaza added that the good news for those who seek out a 4th dose this month, is that enough time will have passed for them to receive a dose from a new version of the vaccine that is geared towards protecting against recent variants of COVID. Those vaccines are expected to be released later this fall.

“The gap between doses is recommended at five months, but is as short as 84 days,” he said, “so someone who gets a vaccine in July will be well placed to get the new vaccine in November for added protection.”

He said that there is no timeline for the new version of the vaccine, as of yet.

The COVID dashboard on the KFLAPH website is only updated weekly on Tuesday afternoons at this time, but the numbers on July 12 were relatively positive, with only 5 people in hospital with COVID, the lowest number in several months, and none requiring intensive care. There were two more deaths reported earlier this month, bringing the total to date in the region to 62, but the death rate has also dropped since the peak of the 6th COVID wave in May.

The positive testing rate has risen in recent weeks, to 16.4%, but unlike jurisdictions such as Ottawa, the wastewater epidemiology in both Kingston treatment plants and the Amherstview plant has risen since the beginning of the month, but not dramatically.

“It is too early to draw any conclusions based on wastewater testing. Not seeing a huge spike is reassuring, but there could be many explanations for that. One thing that is positive for KFL&A is that our region is a leader in the province in vaccine uptake, and that certainly is adding to the level of protection,” he said.

KFLAPH also announced last week that a case of Monkeypox has been confirmed in the region. The location of the case has not been disclosed, but Dr. Oglaza said that the person who is infected is isolating and all known contacts have been identified.

“The risk to the public from the case is minimal,” he said.