(Photo: Government of New Brunswick YouTube)
New Brunswickers were invited to submit their vaccine questions for the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Dr. Jennifer Russell took to social media yesterday, with the Clinical Pharmacist for the Vitalité Health Network Daniel Landry for a Q and A.
Dr. Russell was asked about vaccine passports, “At the current time, Canada is not pursuing a vaccine passport for national purposes. The intent right now is to ensure vaccination rates are as high as they can possibly be in each province and territory so that each Canadian can move freely across the country.”
She says, “The federal government though is working on some type of vaccine passport for international travel and is working very closely with international allies.”
All of the details haven’t on how this will work haven’t been revealed yet, but she says COVID-19 testing may be part of the strategy..
Another question involved what the upcoming school year look like for children who cannot be vaccinated.
Dr. Russell says Public Health is working with Education and Early Childhood Development to come up with back to school plans, “I have heard that there are some places where they are talking about wanting to mask kids in schools, but at this time our best practices are personal protective measures such as good hygiene, such as staying at home when you are sick, getting tested if you have symptoms that you develop and handwashing.”
She says, that will help to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, such as colds and the flu.
But she adds says high vaccination rates amongst those who can get their shot will help allow the best layer of protection.
As to when younger children will be offered the COVID-19 vaccines, Landry doesn’t expect this will come for several months..
“We don’t anticipate to be vaccinated young children until at least late fall or into the new year in 2022 at the earliest.”
Dr. Landry says Health Canada is watching the science around the requirements for boosters and the integration of protection for new variants.
