A pill to treat COVID-19 appears to be the country's best hope, outside of vaccines and strong public health measures, to keep hospitals from being overrun with cases of the virus now and in the future, doctors say.
"Because Omicron is so different, previous infection doesn't protect you," Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, said last week.
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.
The mayor of Canada's capital city is urging the federal government to send its workers back to their downtown offices to bolster flagging local businesses.
Canada is urging the World Health Organization not to reject the only Canadian-made COVID-19 vaccine, so it can be donated and used by the COVAX vaccine-sharing alliance.
Canada may not be able to donate millions of doses of the only COVID-19 vaccine made in the country because the World Health Organization is leaning against granting it an emergency-use licence.
Advocates working with Black and Indigenous communities say a proposal to make unvaccinated adults pay a financial penalty risks further entrenching inequities in Canada's pandemic response, and adding another burden to those who are marginalized.
Federal COVID-19 vaccine contracts mean Canada should get enough doses to give two or three more mRNA shots to every Canadian, every year until at least 2024.
As Quebec officials consider tightening the rules for the unvaccinated, health experts in the province say expanding the vaccine passport system is justified because of the high number of COVID-19 patients in hospital who have refused to be jabbed.
Canada has delivered about one-quarter of the direct vaccine doses it has promised to help less wealthy countries and can't say when more doses will go out the door.