Sask. pauses COVID-19 vaccines for people outside high-risk groups until fall boosters arrive

Saskatchewan is pausing its COVID-19 booster program for the general public until the fall, when an updated booster is expected to be available. This means the province is no longer offering COVID-19 vaccinations at pop-up clinics or pharmacies.

"The new fall vaccines are anticipated to be more closely related to circulating strains. An end date of June 30 for the 2024 spring COVID-19 immunization program was necessary to allow for the minimum three-month interval between doses," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said in an email.

Existing vaccination doses contain the XBB1.5 strain and are still available through public health for those in the following categories:

• Children six months to four years old who are moderately to severely immunocompromised.
• Transplant recipients including, solid-organ, islet cell, hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.

As of April 20, 18.4 per cent of the Saskatchewan population had received the booster.

Sask. COVID wastewater 'medium to high' in some regions

The Ministry of Health's most recent monthly report on respiratory illness in the province shows that for the week ending July 13, COVID-19 wastewater levels were medium to high in Saskatoon, Yorkton, Melville and the Meadow Lake region. Wastewater COVID-19 levels for Regina were medium. All other areas reported low levels. No data was collected for Prince Albert, Kindersley, Melfort or the Far North Central region.

As of July 6, the most dominant variant in Saskatchewan was JN.1.

Test positivity rates dropped to 11.5 per cent from 15 per cent from June 23 to July 13.

The report said COVID-19 hospitalizations went to 85 from 107 over the most recent two weeks and COVID-19 patients accounted for 3.2 per cent of staffed beds, up from 2.1 per cent the previous month. There were two deaths associated with the virus over that same time.

Doctor says long COVID remains a concern

Calgary physician and assistant professor of family medicine Dr. Raj Bhardwaj told CBC's The Morning Edition that the updated booster will provide more protection because it will target more recent variants.

"There will be an updated vaccine coming in the fall. The current strains that are causing infection are not well covered by the last updated vaccine because they've mutated. If you did get the last vaccine, then great, it covered you for a while," Bhardwaj said.

Bhardwaj said although data is available on the virus, it is more difficult to track than it once was.

"The provinces have decreased their testing. They're also reporting less stuff to the Public Health Agency of Canada. And then people are kind of stuck because free rapid tests are much harder to come by now. But we know that COVID levels are still pretty high across most of the country and trending upward."

He said the possibility of long COVID is a good reason to avoid getting the virus if possible, even if many cases are mild.

"The symptoms of the current strain we know are mostly things like sore throat, runny nose, loss of voice, but some people are not having any of those cold symptoms. They're having gut symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea," he said.

"COVID is still causing prolonged symptoms and complications, including long COVID, in about one in nine people who get it regardless of the severity of their infection."

Bhardwaj said contracting long COVID is a bigger threat than acute infection, because it is a chronic condition that can last at least three months.

"It's the potential for complications and life-altering health effects for months or years to come. That's what we need to be aware of and why it's still important to try to avoid catching COVID."

He said new research shows how long COVID can affect most of the body.

"It sounds almost unfathomable that COVID could cause all these problems, but remember that the virus can get into pretty much any organ in your body," he said.

He said the list of symptoms is long and depends on what part of the body was most affected and includes:

• Shortness of breath or chronic cough.
• Memory changes, difficulty concentrating, problems with word minding, sleep problems.
• Blood pressure, strokes, blood clots, kidney problems, allergy symptoms after COVID, developing cholesterol and increased risk of developing diabetes after COVID.

Bhardwaj said a blood test that can diagnose long COVID is the goal.

"There are a lot of different what we call biomarkers that are being researched in terms of a potential diagnosis of long COVID, but we're not there yet," he said.

"So right now it is a sit down and talk about your symptoms, and talk about the timing of symptoms versus infection, and then coming up with a plan from there."