Mr. Chair, that decision has been very impactful, because COVID-19, of course, has a disproportionate impact on certain populations, including our most senior age groups as well as those in congregate-living settings such as long-term care, and then, of course, those at high risk of exposure to the virus such as health care workers.
I'll just point out that, in this third resurgence, the number of deaths—and we should take note of every death—is much smaller, whereas we would have expected that to be much higher. As the protection of the very effective vaccines have taken hold, long-term care facility cases and outbreaks have dramatically decreased. That was the first thing that we noticed about the vaccine program. Then the rates in the 80 years and older age group plummeted, really, at a very fast rate. That was another really good sign.
Vaccine effectiveness studies being carried out in Quebec and British Columbia indicate the effectiveness of even the first dose of vaccine. Health care worker cases have also dropped as a result of their being vaccinated as a priority group, so I do think that those prioritizations have had an impact.
First nation communities and the territories were prioritized and have had a really high vaccine uptake. I do think the vaccine has played a very key role in protecting those populations.