Updated COVID vaccines available in some Ottawa pharmacies

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New COVID-19 vaccines designed to target current variants are now available at many pharmacies in Ottawa.

The rollout of the updated vaccines comes as a COVID-19 wave that has been building for weeks continues to grow. Since the beginning of the 2024-2025 respiratory season in late August, six Ottawa residents have died from COVID-19. Levels of COVID in Ottawa are higher than they were last year at this time.

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This week, Ottawa Public Health reported that, according to wastewater surveillance and testing, COVID levels in the community are very high and increasing. Thirty people were admitted to local hospitals with COVID over the past week, which is down from a week earlier. OPH also reported 17 new respiratory outbreaks in long-term care homes, retirement homes and hospitals.

Several Ottawa pharmacies contacted by the Citizen said they are now administering COVID-19 vaccines, which they received earlier this week. At least one said they were still waiting for supply.

The updated vaccines were approved by Health Canada last month. In Ontario and some other provinces, previous versions of COVID vaccines, targeting older variants, were destroyed before the new ones would be made available. That meant no vaccines have been available in the province for weeks of a significant COVID wave.

Flu shots are also expected to be available in Ottawa beginning next week. Last year, public health encouraged people to get COVID and flu shots at the same time.

A spokesperson for Ottawa Public Health said it is awaiting shipment of the COVID vaccines so it can begin administering in its clinics but it expects to have more information next week.

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The virus that causes COVID-19 mutates rapidly, which means vaccines have been updated frequently since the first vaccines were available in late 2020. Boosters have also been available because immunity, both from vaccines and from previous infections, can begin to wane after a period of months. The vaccines reduce the severity of infection but don’t necessarily prevent infection.

Health Canada approved two updated mRNA vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer, as well as a non-mRNA vaccine, the protein-based Nuvaxovid from Novovax, earlier this year. Ontario has since said that it will not offer Novaxovid because the manufacturer required a minimum order that was significantly higher than last year’s uptake.

Some Canadians, including those who are immunocompromised and have had adverse reactions to mRNA vaccines, are travelling to the U.S. to get the protein-based vaccine.

The new vaccination campaign, amid an ongoing surge in cases, comes at a time when wastewater surveillance has ended in most of the province and access to rapid tests to confirm infection is increasingly difficult.

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Publicly funded rapid tests are now only available to people at higher risk for severe illness (including older adults and those who are immune-compromised) when they are already showing symptoms. Long-term care homes and other high-risk congregate living settings can also order publicly funded tests, according to Ministry of Health spokesperson W.D. Lighthall.

“As Ontario and the rest of the world recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are joining other jurisdictions in implementing a test-to-treat policy, normalizing COVID-19 treatment and testing in line with existing programs,” said Lighthall in a statement.

Rapid tests can be purchased in many pharmacies.

Critics say the change will lead to more spread of the illness that can have severe long-term health impacts even after relatively mild cases.

Amid a severe summer and early fall wave, the U.S. began mailing out free rapid tests.

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