A dangerous new variant of COVID-19 has prompted politicians and public health officials to urge Ontario to prioritize Peel Region for second doses, lest the province repeat its mistakes and get swept into a fourth wave of the pandemic.
The public health unit west of Toronto has long been one of the hardest hit regions by COVID-19 due in large part to the high number of essential workplaces. Experts now warn that the Delta variant, which first appeared in India, presents a new threat to the region.
“I need vaccines yesterday. We’ve got crowded factories, and I know it’s like a tinderbox. It will spread like wildfire,” Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ont., in Peel Region said in an interview
“I was screaming from the top of my lungs for months previously, about the first rollout. I’m hopeful that the lessons have been learned.”
The province was criticized for its per-capita distribution model early in the vaccine effort. It began prioritizing hot spots in late April, sending half of all doses to regions with high COVID-19 rates, but that ended after two weeks.
Evidence now suggests a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine is not as effective against the Delta variant, which is also known as B.1.617.
Brown said he’s hoping to hear from the province about a change in approach over the weekend.
He said Peel Public Health needs the province’s approval to offer accelerated second doses to essential workers, because the region uses the provincial government’s COVID-19 vaccine booking system.
“We are literally months away from them being eligible for their second dose,” Brown said. “If we wait two months for them to get their second dose, this variant will be across Ontario.”
The province began offering accelerated second doses to residents aged 80 and older earlier this week _ Ontario previously had a four-month interval between shots.
On Friday, the government said that those aged 70 and older and people who received an mRNA vaccine on or before April 18 could now book second doses at pharmacies or primary care settings. Starting on Monday, they’ll be able to book shots through the provincial booking system.
Dr. Lawrence Loh, Peel’s top doctor, said his region has the highest proportion of the Delta variant in the province.
READ MORE: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta: WHO officially names COVID-19 variants of concern
As of Wednesday, the public health unit had detected nearly 100 cases of the variant, but it’s not screening all positive test results for the strain.
“Preliminary analysis from the science table suggests that in one month, the Delta variant will be the dominant strain in our region, with the rest of Ontario weeks behind,” Loh told a press conference this week.
He said that if the province wants to reopen businesses, it must slow the spread of the Delta variant in Peel.
Bonnie Crombie, mayor of Mississauga, Ont., said she’s concerned about the province’s proposal to speed up reopening, given the Delta variant’s presence in her city.
“We should stick to the original strategy of opening on June 14,” she said. “That gives us a little extra time to get additional second doses into arms.”
She, too, has called on the province to send more doses to Peel.
A spokesman for the Health Ministry said the province is sticking to its original plan.
“As first dose appointments were based on age and risk, second dose appointments will also reflect those priorities,” Christian Hasse said in an email Friday.
Dr. Naheed Dosani, a palliative care physician and health justice activist, said that would be a mistake.
The pandemic has already disproportionately affected racialized communities, he said, and the Delta variant’s presence in Peel threatens to worsen that.
According to Statistics Canada, 62 per cent of Peel Region’s residents are categorized as visible minorities.
“In Peel, we have many people who are essential workers. We have many people living in multi generational households, who don’t have the privilege of staying home that other people might have,” Dosani said.
That all allows COVID-19 to spread more easily throughout the region.
“I certainly hope we’ve learned our lessons from the past,” Dosani said. “There’s really no excuse not to make the kinds of changes that need to be made to prevent people from getting sick, and to prevent an overall fourth wave across the province.”
–with a file from Denise Paglinawan