Mr. Speaker, as we come out of the omicron wave, it is now important to take stock of where we are and to plan a more sustainable approach to our COVID‑19 management.
Our goal from the start has been to minimize serious illness and overall deaths, while minimizing societal disruption. That remains unchanged. As the omicron wave continues to recede, we need to recognize that COVID is not just going to disappear. While we have learned a great deal over the course of the pandemic, there still remains much uncertainty.
Our health system has been significantly strained throughout this pandemic. While there is variability in how jurisdictions across the country are assessing risks and adjusting their approaches, we will continue to recommend some individual public health measures in the near term, such as wearing masks in indoor public settings, while continuing to use vaccines and therapeutics as cornerstones of our response.
The vaccination rate in Canada is high, but it is still possible to improve our protection. As of March 13, 2022, more than 84% of Canadians had received at least one dose, more than 81% had received two doses and roughly 17 million Canadians had received a booster.
Individuals who have received an additional dose are highly protected against hospitalization. As of February 27, 2022, less than 8% of hospitalizations were among individuals fully vaccinated with an additional dose. Thanks to Canadians' adherence to public health measures and high rates of vaccination, including booster doses, our outlook for the next several months continues to improve.
As Canada emerges from this wave with vaccines widely available and higher levels of immunity because of prior infection, the focus of planning will shift toward recovery. Individual public health measures, along with vaccines and therapeutics, will remain key in protecting individuals should a virulent and highly transmissible variant of concern emerge again.
Studies have also shown that the timely implementation of public health measures will result in fewer hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, less demand on health care services and a reduced need for other more restrictive population-based measures that may result in significant societal disruption in workplaces, for example. Business closures, school closures and other closures will continue to be reduced as a result.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is collaborating with its provincial and territorial partners to plan for the adoption of a more sustainable approach to intervening with respect to the continued presence of the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus.
Given the uncertainty, nimble approaches will be required as government-imposed restrictive measures are lifted. Nationally, we are seeing reported cases levelling off, while severe outcomes, like hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths, are continuing to decline. While this is encouraging, there is still the potential for severity indicators to increase again as the provinces and territories begin relaxing their public health measures.
For these reasons, it is important that all Canadians continue to update their vaccine protection and make choices that reduce the risks of COVID-19 for themselves and their loved ones. A longer-term, more sustainable approach as we manage this virus will leverage all tools to balance the need to manage COVID-19 against minimizing societal disruption and enabling recovery. I would like to finish by reaffirming that this pandemic has demonstrated that we need a range of measures in our public health tool box to continue to fend off highly infectious diseases.