Christine Elliott

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is expected to release guidance on fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine in early April as public health indicators tick up across Canada.

Many provinces indicated on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, they would not rush to follow the lead of Alberta and Saskatchewan by quickly dropping COVID-19 vaccination passports and indoor mask requirements.

Parents and teachers in four provinces are bracing for students to return to the classroom on Monday, January 17, 2022, as the Omicron variant-fuelled wave of COVID-19 continues to spread and questions remain about how prepared schools really are for a full-scale return.

The rampant spread of the Omicron variant has stoked alarm across the border, where the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a fresh Level 4 "avoid travel" advisory for Canada, citing a "very high" level of COVID-19 in the country and urging anyone who must go to be fully vaccinated.

Canadians unwilling to be vaccinated against COVID-19 should be accommodated through measures like rapid testing, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said on Thursday, January 6, 2022, as health experts warned the lightning-fast spread of the Omicron variant threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

Provinces are putting new measures in place to deal with an Omicron-fuelled rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, including delaying in-person schooling in Ontario by two weeks and bringing in the military to help Quebec speed up its third-dose vaccination program.

Canada logged three more cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant on Monday, November 29, 2021, and was investigating other potential infections as hundreds of people who recently travelled back from countries deemed high-risk for the new strain were encouraged to get tested.

Both cases of the variant were found in the Ottawa area in people who had recently been in Nigeria, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a joint statement with the province's top public health official, Dr. Kieran Moore.

Parents in Alberta can start booking online COVID-19 vaccination times for their children on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, as three more provinces announced the rollout of similar inoculation programs on Tuesday, November 23, 2021.

The deadlines the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) announced in an email Wednesday were a delay on its original plan, while Premier Doug Ford remains committed to making such inoculations voluntary — for education staff and students.

The federal Conservatives are urging the Liberal government to do more to ensure that Canadians who received two different doses of COVID-19 vaccines are able to travel internationally.

Trans patients are more likely to live in low-income neighbourhoods and suffer chronic physical and mental health problems. Ontario’s health-care system doesn’t see them, but the health minister says the province is looking into it.

After months of shifting advice, Ontario has become the first Canadian province to prioritize pregnant women in a vaccine rollout plan, without special conditions. Health-care workers and specialists say the move is a win for pregnant women and for public health.

New U.S. guidelines say people fully inoculated against COVID-19 can drop some precautions when gathering with others, but at least two provincial health ministers say existing public health advice holds for now.

Several provinces began relaxing COVID-19 restrictions on Monday, February 8, 2021, amid what Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam described as “hopeful signs of declining COVID-19 activity."