As Omicron case numbers continue to rise, experts are warning that the rollout of third doses may have to be ramped up and some health restrictions may have to be re-imposed to prevent the variant from overwhelming hospitals.
Experts say the Omicron variant, which was first detected in South Africa, is unusual because it has a high number of mutations in two key areas of the virus’ spike protein. Dozens of cases of the variant have been detected across Canada, and experts warn it will likely become the dominant strain in the coming days.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CTV's Your Morning that he is most concerned about hospital capacity amid increasing spread of the Omicron variant, calling it a "Canada-wide issue."
"No one wants to hear this, but it's not even better now," Bogoch said Tuesday. "It's actually worse because there's been significant attrition from healthcare over the last 18 months… so our ICU capacity is very tight."
When ICU capacity becomes limited, Bogoch said it is important that health units re-evaluate restrictions to ensure hospitals can continue to provide care.
"When you're starting to be in a position where you can't care for the people in your area because of a rise in cases and actually a utilization of health care that just exceeds what you can do, you probably should be taking some steps to curb transmission in the community," Bogoch said.
Increased restrictions were recently announced in Atlantic Canada, as well as in some individual health regions in Ontario, including Kingston and London.
While Bogoch acknowledged that "nobody wants these" restrictions, he added that they "might help slow down the spread of what is a very rapidly spreading variant of concern."
"When you start to see individual public health units rollout some of these additional public health measures and restrictions, I think the writing's on the wall and we'll probably see more and more public health units impose them as we see this expected rise in Omicron cases," Bogoch said.
Canada's top doctor warned Monday that the Omicron variant poses a threat to an already exhausted health-care system.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said during a press briefing that she expects the situation playing out in Ontario, where Omicron is responsible for 21 per cent of new cases, to be reflected elsewhere in Canada soon, stipulating that this may be due to waning community immunity.
"For sure we are seeing community transmission, possibly in its early stages, but this can rapidly escalate in the days to come," she said.
Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, told CTV News Channel Tuesday that provinces need to act quickly to stop the spread of the Omicron variant from overwhelming hospitals.
He said the Omicron variant is likely responsible for between 30 and 50 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in Ontario as of Tuesday.
"We need to interrupt these chains of transmission now," he said. "We can't have our ICUs overwhelmed and if we want to just avoid that, we really need to right now act relatively strongly."
Juni said provinces need to "ramp up" the rollout of third doses, adding that individual Canadians can do their part by maintaining small gatherings this holiday season.
Juni said the data on Omicron is still limited, and thus, extra caution should be taken.
"We don't know how this will play out here. Especially we don't know how it will play out in people that are completely non-immune, never infected, never vaccinated," he said.
THREE SHOTS 'BETTER' THAN TWO
In a year-end interview with CTV News' Evan Solomon, airing in full on CTV’s Question Period this Sunday at 11 a.m. EST, Trudeau stated his government has secured enough vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna "for everyone to get boosters," but offered no timeline for their rollout.
"The delivery of those boosters is on the provinces and they are setting up their timelines in terms of that," he said. "There are commitments to have the boosters in Canada as soon as we need them."
Bogoch said provinces will likely "pivot" their third-dose strategies as more information on the Omicron variant becomes available.
"There's been data that's emerged over the last seven to 10 days demonstrating that third doses will significantly help with Omicron. Two doses are good, but three doses are better and I think we're going to watch an accelerated third dose strategy from coast to coast," Bogoch said.
Bogoch said getting a third shot will "absolutely" help protect people against the Omicron variant and keep them out of hospital.
"It will reduce further reduce the likelihood that you get this infection," Bogoch said. "You still can get this infection, but it will also very likely reduce the probability that you have a more severe outcome like hospitalization, ICU stay or death."
While two doses still offer protection against Omicron, Bogoch said three shots are key.
With the Omicron variant being more transmissible, Bogoch said this means that it also has a "predilection to re-infect people," as well as infect "more readily" those who have had one or two doses of the vaccine.
"People who've had three doses of a vaccine have been infected as well. However, it's clear that if you've been vaccinated, the risk of infection is lower and the risk of having a severe outcome is also lower," Bogoch said.
A new study, published Saturday in the peer-reviewed journal Emerging Microbes & Infection, found that the Omicron variant may have a greater ability than other strains of the virus to escape immune protection from antibodies produced by previous COVID-19 infection, and potentially vaccines.
The researchers cautioned that because antibody protection from either vaccination or previous infection decreases over a period of six months, the variant "may be able to escape immunity even better."
The study suggests that while a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine "can significantly boost immunity," the protection it provides from Omicron "may be compromised."
Despite this, researchers in Israel said they found a three-shot course of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine provided significant protection against the Omicron variant.
The study out of Israel also found that those who received the second dose five or six months ago did "not have neutralization ability against Omicron."
With files from CTVNews.ca's Sarah Turnbull and Hannah Jackson
