Nova Scotia’s top doctor says vaccine intake for influenza is far from where it should be in young demographics, as the province records an early flu season.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang spoke at a media availability Friday, pleading Nova Scotians to take preventative measures against the flu and COVID-19.
“Normally we don’t have peek influenza until after the holidays,” Strang said.
“I’m hearing people say it’s not worthwhile to get influenza vaccine at this point, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
As holidays approach, Public Health’s advice is to “be very careful” with social activities.
“There’s a lot of potential for passing viruses around as we socialize,” Strang said. “I continue to recommend that people wear masks in crowded indoor spaces.”
Strang asks those who are sick, even with mild symptoms, to not go to social events. “If you do have to be out and bout while sick, you absolutely need to wear a mask and do not visit an elderly person, someone who is immunocompromised, or a young child.”
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The doctor said people should think about community and preserve hospital capacities for those with a range of healthcare needs.
“We all need to do what we can do, take preventative steps starting with vaccination, to minimize the chance that we will need the healthcare system in the coming weeks.”
Strang said seniors are well-vaccinated against influenza, but youth are “far far from where we need to be with vaccine uptake.”
Uptake in flu vaccines with young Nova Scotians hasn’t been high historically, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse, according to Strang.
“Too many people have kind of said ‘we wanna move past it’ and are ignoring that,” he said.
“Certainly, misinformation and social media and online is part of this, and that’s a significant issue that we as society collectively need to look at.”
This comes after hospitals across the province have reported overcrowding or approaching overcrowding due to illnesses including influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
Capacity issues include the province’s largest children’s hospital, the IWK Health Centre, which reported six-hour long wait times in the emergency department last month. Chief of the department said at the time 10 per cent of patients leave without ever being seen by a doctor.
Last week, Global News reported that an email to staff of Dartmouth General Hospital said the pressure on the emergency room has risen to the point where there’s no space to assess patients and one in 10 people give up and leave.
COVID-19 and influenza cases
COVID-19 is still active in the province. In a recent update, Nova Scotia said it recorded another 515 positive PCR tests between Dec. 6 and 12.
On Tuesday, there were 34 people in hospital for COVID-19, including seven in ICU.
No new deaths were recorded last week, but another three deaths were added to the tally from the previous reporting period.
Since Dec. 8, 2021, when the Omicron waves began, 561 Nova Scotians died from COVID-19. A total of 673 people died since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
More than 53 per cent of Nova Scotians received at least three doses of the vaccine, and 14.7 per cent haven’t received a single dose.
In a respiratory watch report for the period from Dec. 4 to Dec. 10, the province recorded 686 new cases of Influenza A.
During that week, 100 people were hospitalized, eight people were admitted to ICU and five people died from the flu.
Since the end of August this year, 25 Nova Scotians died after having a lab-confirmed case of influenza.
Public health also reported 176 new RSV cases from Dec. 4-10. There were also three cases of adenovirus, three cases of enterovirus or rhinovirus and one case of parainfluenza.
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