Rising Omicron variant cases prompt call for heightened B.C. response

Experts in B.C. are calling for a proactive approach from the province as the Omicron variant is becoming more prominent in other parts of the world.

The variant was first detected in Ontario in late November but now accounts for 21 per cent of the province’s COVID-19 cases. There are suggestions this new variant could be the dominant strain by Christmas.

In an update on the national state of Omicron Monday, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said variant cases could “rapidly escalate” across Canada in the coming days.

“There is community transmission of Omicron variant in Canada. What we’re seeing in Ontario I expect to be seeing in other areas of the country, as has been seen in Europe and other areas of the world,” she said. “But for sure, we are seeing community transmission, possibly in its early stages, but this can rapidly escalate in the days to come.”

All we have to do is look to Ontario to get a sense of where things could go, suggests health policy researcher Andrew Longhurst with SFU.

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So Longhurst could speed up the rollout of booster shots before Omicron really takes hold here in B.C.

“The rollout seems to be sort of a trickle. It’s happening, but that should be a huge priority right now to vaccinate that population,” he said. “We’re seeing, in the U.K., an expedited process to get third doses into people’s arms. And we’re seeing none of that sort of response here in B.C.”

Longhurst says he understands the holiday period can be a busy time but adds people need to take action now to help stop the spread of the virus.

“We can’t afford to be delayed unnecessarily. We know that we need those boosters or third doses in people’s arms now to create that immunity in anticipation that Omicron is going to be a tidal wave. It’s going to hit us really hard. We need to move quickly, and I’m not seeing that.”

Vaccination is key to preventing widespread infections and likely hospitalizations, Longhurst says, even if the symptoms of the variant are less severe.

“I think [calling it] ‘mild Omicron’ is really problematic because it doesn’t take into account the fact that a much more infectious variant is a much bigger public health challenge for us.”

As the province runs a number of immunization rollouts, the B.C. government provided numbers that show fewer staff are now able to administer the shot.

Read More: Far fewer staff in B.C. administering COVID-19 shots despite three vaccine rollouts

To combat the shortage, Longhurst suggests the province bring on health care professionals from other sectors to help out.

“Vaccination efforts don’t and should not rely exclusively on physicians and registered nurses. We know that they are needed in many other parts of the health system.”

SFU epidemiologist Caroline Colijn says ultimately Omicron will continue to spread before most British Columbians get their boosters. She suggests the province needs to think of other ways of slowing the spread of the virus.

“Boosters will help protect against infection. They do improve that antibody binding, but antibodies are only a part of our immune system,” she explains. “Our immune system is more like a swiss army knife with lots of different parts.

“We can’t get boosters out to all the adults within the next week, that’s just not going to be feasible. We can’t win the race against Omicron with boosters in the general population because we have a timescale of a couple of weeks for Omicron and [boosters] would take longer than that to roll out boosters to everyone.”

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According to the province, 750 pharmacies will be added to the booster effort in January for those aged 12 and up. That means there will be 1,000 pharmacy options across the entire province.

Tam encouraged Canadians to get a booster when they are eligible and limit contacts to slow the spread of the new variant that’s now been detected in more than 60 countries, including the U.K., where at least one patient with Omicron has died.

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Colijn and Longhurst both suggest vaccines are just one tool the province can use in its toolbox. The pair tell CityNews the province has primarily relied on vaccines but an improvement to ventilation and better masks are all contributing factors that can prevent the spread.

“Think about being cautious when we go to gatherings, opening the windows … it’s a COVID virus, it’s not suddenly going to completely change modes,” Colijn says, adding accessible rapid testing could also be used.

“Rapid testing is not a magic answer … we know it has some limitations, but it is also a tool in the toolkit that we should have access to.”

Colijn admits there are still a lot of unknowns with this strain, but experts do know if it is showing a “strong growth advantage.”

“The problem is, it’s hard to know how severe something is until thousands and thousands of people have had it.”

– With files from Melissa Duggan