A healthcare worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine in a file photograph. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Health Canada has instructed the provinces to destroy existing inventories of last year’s COVID-19 vaccines while it works to approve updated shots, provincial officials say.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) issued a directive at a July 25 meeting of the Canadian Immunization Committee instructing all provinces to pull XBB COVID-19 vaccines for public use, according to a spokesperson for Alberta’s minister of health. The XBB shots targeted the Omicron variant.
Health Canada said PHAC is collaborating with the provinces and territories on a “transition plan” to switch from the current vaccine supply to updated vaccines.
“The plan provides each province and territory the flexibility to ensure ongoing access to current supply until new vaccines are approved,” Health Canada said in an email to The Epoch Times. “This includes a period of transition to full removal.”
Health ministry representatives from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec all confirmed to The Epoch Times that old-strain COVID-19 vaccines are no longer available to the public in their provinces.
“In anticipation of the arrival of new COVID-19 vaccine formulations this fall, the Public Health Agency of Canada directed market withdrawal of all Moderna Spikevax XBB.1.5 and Pfizer Comirnaty XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccines,” a Saskatchewan health ministry spokesperson said in an email to The Epoch Times.
All health-care facilities, pharmacies, and physician offices in Saskatchewan disposed of their remaining vaccine stock as directed on Aug. 31, the spokesperson said.
Alberta also withdrew the vaccine for public use at the end of last month, the province’s spokesperson said.
“COVID-19 vaccines with previous strains or formulations are no longer being offered in Alberta,” she said.
Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Alberta all said that COVID shots will be available again once the new COVID-19 formulation is approved by Health Canada. The new vaccines will be used to target the now-dominant JN.1 or KP.2 strains of COVID.
The Epoch Times contacted the health ministry in each province to determine vaccine status, but did not receive a response from the remaining ministries prior to publication.
Health Canada said it is currently reviewing, “on an expedited basis,” submissions from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax.
“Should they meet Health Canada’s standards for safety, efficacy and quality, the department expects to authorize the vaccines in time for planned fall campaigns,” the agency said.
A Sept. 4 update to the federal government’s immunization guide says the new vaccines are designed to address the dominant JN.1 and KP.2 variants of COVID.
The federal immunization guide says the effectiveness of previous vaccines was low against infection and highest against severe disease, but noted that its potency decreases over time. It recommends vaccination every six months for most people, but suggests those who test positive for COVID-19 wait eight weeks before getting the jab.
A study published this spring in the journal Vaccine said that those with a prior infection are 2.6 times more likely to suffer an adverse reaction after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
COVID in Canada
COVID-19 activity in Canada is currently high in six provinces, and moderate in five, according to the government’s wastewater monitoring dashboard. Levels are rated as high in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, but moderate in Yukon, Alberta, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Data wasn’t available for Nunavut or the Northwest Territories.
The ratings may not tell the story for the entire province, however. In Ontario, for instance, tests were performed solely in Toronto. The city was broken down into four regions, two of which tested high while two tested as moderate.
It was the same story in B.C. with tests run exclusively in Vancouver. Like in Toronto, the B.C. city was broken down into four regions, two of which tested high and two moderate.
Data from Canada’s Respiratory Virus Detection Surveillance System found that, out of nearly 22,000 COVID-19 tests performed the week of Aug. 24, fewer than 4,000, or 18 percent, were positive.
Breakdown by province showed that Nova Scotia had the highest incidence of COVID as of Aug. 24 with 22.9 percent of tests being positive. Quebec followed close behind at 21.2 percent, results that appear to contradict the wastewater testing results. B.C. was third at 17.9 percent, followed by Ontario at 15.9 percent, and Manitoba at 15.3 percent.