COVID-19 updates, Aug. 30: Quebec vaccine passport app now available for Android devices

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Give third doses to immunosuppressed people and dialysis patients – but, for now, not to CHSLD residents, provincial vaccine committee says.

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Updated throughout the day on Monday, Aug. 30. Questions/comments: ariga@postmedia.com

Article content Top updates Article content 5 p.m. Thanks for reading

I’ll be back tomorrow with another live blog.

In the meantime, you can follow all our coverage via the coronavirus page.

My previous COVID-19 live blogs are available here.

4:50 p.m. Alberta government backbencher denies advocating for COVID case spike in unvaccinated

The chairman of Alberta’s United Conservative caucus is denying he said he wanted more unvaccinated people to catch COVID-19 so the province could attain herd immunity, The Canadian Press reports.

Nathan Neudorf says he wants cases to go down and that getting more people vaccinated is the best way to achieve that.

On Friday, Neudorf, the legislature member for Lethbridge-East, told a local news program he hoped Alberta would see a rise in COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated.

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He told the program that having infections sweep through unprotected people could result in herd immunity — leaving the virus with no one else to infect and thereby causing cases to fall.

Alberta has well over one million unvaccinated residents, including 660,000 children under 12, who are not eligible to get shots.

Opposition NDP critic Shannon Phillips calls Neudorf’s remarks “odious” and urged him to apologize and resign as caucus chairman.

3:55 p.m. Quebec vaccine passport app now available for Android devices

Available now on Google Play: the Android versions of the VaxiCode vaccine-passport app and the VaxiCode Verif app that will be used to check proof of vaccination.

Click here to download VaxiCode on Google Play.

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The Android version of VaxiCode Verif is available here.

3:30 p.m. Manitoba government opens up COVID-19 vaccination card to more people

The Manitoba government says COVID-19 vaccination cards and QR digital bar codes are now available to people even if they don’t have a provincial health card, The Canadian Press reports.

Individuals will have to have had two doses — in any combination — of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson.

Their last shot will have to have been at least two weeks before the request.

Manitobans vaccinated outside the province will need to provide proof to public health and the data must be recorded.

A public health order starting Friday will require people to be double vaccinated to attend sporting events and concerts, indoor theatre and dance performances, restaurants, nightclubs, movie theatres and casinos.

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Public health officials say vaccine appointments have increased since the measure was announced last week.

2:50 p.m. Opinion: McGill should lead by example with mandatory COVID-19 vaccination

“The requirement to attend a university lecture on infectious disease should be at least as stringent as the requirement to, say, play bingo.”

Read the full column by Saleema Nawaz

2:45 p.m. Video: ‘We want to be very, very prudent’ as children return to school, Dubé says Article content 2:35 p.m. Give 3rd dose to immunosuppressed people, Quebec vaccine committee says

Quebec’s vaccination committee says people who are immunosuppressed or are on dialysis should receive an additional dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine against COVID-19.

However, for now, the Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec (CIQ) is not recommending third doses be given to people who live in long-term care homes, known as CHSLDs.

The recommendations were presented in a report published today.

“The additional dose (for particular groups) should be considered as a reinforcement of the basic vaccination and not as a booster dose,” the committee said in a press release.

The recommendation only affects between one per cent and two per cent of the population, including people who have had an organ transplant or who are receiving chemotherapy to fight cancer.

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“These people often do not respond to the first two doses due to a medical condition that affects their immune system,” said Dr. Nicholas Brousseau, a medical specialist at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) who is president of the CIQ.

People who are immunosuppressed or on dialysis “should receive a third dose of a messenger RNA vaccine with a delay of four weeks or more after the second dose to improve their defences against COVID-19.”

The committee said it is “essential that relatives of immunosuppressed people are adequately immunized.”

As for CHSLD residents, the committee said “the Quebec strategy of extending the time between two doses beyond the intervals recommended by vaccine manufacturers seems to have promoted better protection.

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“This strategy also means that the second dose was offered more recently to residents of CHSLDs in Quebec compared to other jurisdictions. In addition, the incidence of COVID-19 is currently very low in these settings.

The committee noted that “the fourth wave is concentrated in young people who are less vaccinated.”

It said that it is monitoring the situation and further recommendations regarding third doses may come later.

“CIQ and INSPQ experts closely monitor scientific data on the number of COVID-19 cases, the evolution of the virus and the effectiveness of vaccines in order to quickly adapt recommendations,” the committee said.

“If necessary, a booster dose (or booster) will be considered for certain groups of the population in order to reactivate their immune memory.”

Article content 1:55 p.m. ‘We’ll be ready’ to launch vaccine passport Wednesday, Dubé says

Health Minister Christian Dubé says Quebecers will be able to download within the next few hours the Android versions of the VaxiCode vaccine-passport app and the VaxiCode Verif app that will be used to check proof of vaccination.

As of Sept. 1, Quebecers will need to flash their proof of vaccination to access activities and services deemed non-essential by the provincial government, including restaurants, gyms, bars, concerts, festivals and sporting events.

Dubé added: “If you don’t have the app by (Wednesday), you can just show your QR code. It’s much easier if you have the app but if you don’t have the time to load the app, you can still show the QR code on a piece of paper or whatever.”

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He noted that 5.5 million Quebecers have downloaded their QR codes.

“We’ll be ready and we’ll start as promised on Sept. 1,” Dubé said of the vaccine passport.