TORONTO -- Nunavut health official says that achieving herd immunity in the territory will be impossible without being able to vaccinate those under age 18.
According to Statistics Canada’s 2016 census data, 32 per cent of Nunavut’s population is 14 or younger. For all of Canada, this age group makes up 16 per cent of the population.
“To the best of anyone's knowledge, it's not possible for Nunavut to get to herd immunity without vaccinating children, certainly not in most communities,” Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, said at a press conference Friday.
All of the COVID-19 vaccinations currently in use in Canada have not yet been approved for people under the age of 18.
He said that the best way for them to approach vaccinations right now is to get that protection to older adults who need it.
“In some journals and articles, they're now talking about achieving herd protection first, which is kind of what we're getting at by this vaccinating adults, especially older adults and other people who are at high risk to reduce the harms from COVID-19,” he added.
He said currently there’s a little under half the adult population in the territory vaccinated and the amount of people getting vaccinated varies by community.
“There are some communities that have had lower uptake than others,” he said. “In those communities where that's happened, there's been supplies left in the health center and staff are continuing to do local outreach to encourage people to get vaccinated.”
Nunavut has received enough doses to vaccinate 75 per cent of its population, and Patterson is waiting on research and approval for vaccinating the territory’s under 18 population.
“When that becomes an option, then we will open vaccination up for children in Nunavut.”
