KFL&A Public Health aiming to immunize up to 70% of local population against the flu

KFL&A Public Health is sending a letter to the federal and provincial governments seeking a dramatic increase in influenza vaccine doses for the region to try to fight dual infections in case of a novel coronavirus outbreak next winter.

“We’re urging our federal and our provincial governments to purchase additional vaccine this year to get it into the hands of public health and family physicians and pharmacists in September so that we can best protect our community so that we don’t have to worry about two viruses that behave very similarly,” said Dr. Kieran Moore, medical officer of health for the public health unit.

In the region, about 40 per cent of the population is vaccinated yearly for the flu, according to Moore, but he wants as much as 70 per cent of the local population to get their flu shots before next winter.

That means the local public health unit is looking for 120,000 to 140,000 doses of the vaccine. Moore wants to focus on tackling the devil we know — influenza — in case of a major surge in cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, locally in the fall and winter months.

“If COVID continues to circulate throughout October, November, December, it will be very difficult for us to distinguish between COVID-19 and influenza,” Moore said. “To eliminate that risk, what we can do is, as a community, maximize our immunization rate against influenza.”

If there is a second COVID-19 wave or it persists, Moore is concerned that the new coronavirus, combined with influenza, could overwhelm the health-care system. The flu season already overburdens local health-care facilities.

“It’s typically December, January, February where we have 110 per cent occupancy, where the number of people admitted with pneumonia goes up,” Moore said.

There is currently no vaccine for the novel coronavirus, but flu vaccines are commonplace.

“To eliminate that risk, what we can do as a community, as a society, is to maximize our immunization rate against influenza, to take it off the differential and make it less of a risk to our population,” he said.

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Luckily, the Kingston region’s first wave of COVID-19 was relatively small, peaking on April 1, with total case numbers standing at 59 on Friday. But Moore has warned that second, third and even fourth waves could be on the horizon. Making sure the population is not also infected with the flu will allow medical officials to handle a sudden influx of COVID-19 patients.

Moore is also calling on the federal government to purchase more anti-viral medications to bolster the health-care system’s ability to deal with influenza.

Moore said public health officials will be aiming to start flu vaccinations in September, something they usually wouldn’t start until after Thanksgiving in a normal year.

— With files from Global News’ Alexandra Mazur