Ontario COVID-19 indicators are currently moving in the right direction, but the county top doctor is preparing for the fall, when trends are likely to worsen, with plans to include a new round of booster doses.
The Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr.  Kieran Moore, said the preparations include scenarios to pass various stakeholders in the health system, such as an “aggressive” flu season combined with a flare-up of COVID-19.
Ontario will buy more than six million doses of flu vaccine, he said in an interview, and expects to offer further doses of COVID-19.
“So another booster for our community members who are most at risk for COVID, and then potentially opening it up to the general public for another booster,” he said.
The third installment is currently available to people 12 years of age and older and the fourth installment is available to people aged 60 and over or adults First Nation, Inuit and Metis, as well as their adult household members.  People with immunosuppression – such as transplant recipients – aged 60 and over and long-term residents can receive a fifth dose.
Moore expects a new generation of vaccine to be available in the fall, targeting both the original COVID strain and a more up-to-date one, such as Omicron.
“We are looking at delivery models through your pharmacy, primary care and your public health associates,” he said.
“This would be something that could start as early as October. We will start with the highest risk, depending on age or occupation, so that healthcare workers or those over 60 can offer it to them. and then on the basis of availability and demand expand further “.
Dr Fahad Razak, scientific director of the provincial advisory team for COVID-19, said more information was needed on the benefits of the fourth installment for the general population.
“The details of this third installment are very clear,” he said in an interview this week.
“The fourth dose is good for high-risk groups; but for the general public, an otherwise healthy person in their 20s or 30s who has no risk factors, there is still no clear evidence to say, ‘Go get the fourth dose.’ .  It is not clear.  You will see that some jurisdictions allow it, some do not, and that reflects a lack of clarity on the part at this time. “
Razak said that while the indicators are positive at the moment, Ontario is still in the sixth wave.
A combination of high vaccination rates and recent infections has given Ontario a strong “immune wall”, but the fall will bring declining immunity as well as other respiratory viruses that have been kept out for two years due to public health measures for COVID-19, he said.
There is also the possibility of a new variant.
“What we’ve seen in previous waves… is essentially a new wave, a new variant developing and coming into the population about every six months,” Razak said.
“Nobody knows if it will continue, but if this pattern continues, we hope to have a good summer, but we are moving into an autumn season with some risk.”
If another wave of COVID-19 threatens the health system and its ability to cope with the unfulfilled surgery, Moore said there is a possibility that the mask commands will return “if it is really necessary”.
“Certainly any further public health measures beyond that, I do not think they will ever be needed, given the benefits of the vaccine we have seen and the effectiveness of coverage at the population level,” he said.
Provincial mask orders for public transportation and healthcare facilities will expire this weekend – though hospitals say they will continue to require masks.  The mandates remain in place in long-term care and nursing homes, and Moore recommends that they be maintained at least until the summer of 2023.
Ontario, meanwhile, announced Friday that it will move from the daily to the weekly COVID-19 data report and stop publishing details of the virus in long-term care and nursing homes as well as in schools.  Verify Ontario, which was used to scan vaccine certificates, will also be removed from the app store.
The province is also in the middle of preparing for the possible approval of vaccines for children under five.  An application by Moderna for a COVID-19 vaccine for children aged six months to five years has been under consideration by Health Canada since late April.
It took Health Canada almost three months to approve the Moderna vaccine for teens and almost four months for children ages six to 11.  Moore said younger children may not be able to be vaccinated until at least the end of the summer.
“We already have plans on how to distribute it through our partners in primary health care, as well as our partners in pharmacies,” he said.
“So we’re ready. Now we’re just making sure the vaccine is safe, that it is effective, and that it will really fully protect children. And I do not mind spending that extra time to make sure the data is correct.”