Search for "vaccination"

67.04 per cent of eligible Canadians had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The most common vaccines in the country were those produced by Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Travellers coming into Canada were no longer required to quarantine for 14 days or to spend three days at a hotel, so long as they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Although its vaccine rollout program was initially much slower than those in other developed countries, Canada surged ahead to surpass the United States in full vaccinations, with 48.8 per cent of Canadians having received two doses compared to 48.1 per cent in the US.

More than 80 per cent of eligible Canadians have now received at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

With 70 per cent of people aged 18 and over vaccinated with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Saskatchewan entered the third and final phase of its reopening plan by lifting all public health restrictions, such as the province’s mask mandate and limits on gatherings.

Two and a half months after lifting all public health restrictions, Saskatchewan‘s health care system was being overwhelmed as cases of COVID-19 swamped ICUs. Elective surgeries were being cancelled and organ transplants were delayed as paramedics often had to wait as long as 17 hours to admit patients to hospitals that were already full. Hospitalized cases of COVID-19 had doubled in the last month in the province, which had one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

Provinces and territories across the country reintroduced capacity limits and other public health measures to try to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Though a fully vaccinated person had 70 per cent protection against symptomatic infection from the Delta variant, that protection fell to only 30 per cent with Omicron. Quebec reported a new single-day record of 4,571 infections.

Ontario announced that it would be pausing the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns over a rare but potentially fatal blood clotting disorder caused by the vaccine. As of 8 May, more than 900,000 shots of the vaccine had been given in the province. There had been eight cases of the disorder in Ontario and at least four more in the rest of the country. Three people had died.

Though there had been a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in Alberta since the province lifted most public health restrictions on 1 July, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, announced a further loosening of restrictions. With 65 per cent of eligible Albertans fully vaccinated against COVID-19, health minister Tyler Shandro said that lifting many remaining restrictions was “the inevitable next step.” However, many were critical of the move. Noel Gibney, a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, said that it went “against all basic principles of public health” and made “absolutely no medical sense.”

A total of 26,771 doses of COVID-19 vaccine — 978 first doses and 25,793 second doses — were administered at a temporary mass immunization clinic set up at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. The number of vaccinations set Canadian and North American records, and possibly a world record. Toronto mayor John Tory proclaimed the day as Toronto Vaccine Day.

Embed from Getty Images

With more than 18,000 active COVID-19 cases — the most of any province — Alberta premier Jason Kenney declared a state of public health emergency. The number of ICU admissions (212) set a pandemic record in Canada. About 90 per cent of ICU patients were unvaccinated. By 30 September, the province had 247 COVID cases in ICU. It then began to receive emergency medical staff from the Red Cross, the Canadian Armed Forces, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Embed from Getty Images

One day after Quebec’s public health chief resigned, Quebec premier François Legault announced that his government intended to impose a “significant” tax on the roughly 10 per cent of Quebecers who refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19. However, after preparing the bill, Legault announced on 1 February, amid mounting opposition, that the bill would scrapped.

Embed from Getty Images

Convoys of truckers, which had been making their way to Ottawa from Western and Eastern Canada, finally arrived in Canada’s capital to protest public health mandates and restrictions. The convoys were cheered by supporters across the country, many of whom greeted them along highway overpasses. However, the protest’s stated goal of unseating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and overthrowing the government left many Canadians uneasy and brought to mind the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 — as did the presence of Confederate and Nazi flags among the protesters. With 85 per cent of Canadians vaccinated, including about 90 per cent of all truckers, the protest was seen as a far-right fringe movement. Observers noted that online rhetoric surrounding the protest had grown “increasingly worrisome.” Similar Freedom Convoy protests formed blockades at a border crossing in Coutts, Alberta, and at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, on 29 January and 7 February, respectively.  

Health Canada approved the COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5–11. The federal government was expecting a delivery of 2.9 million pediatric doses, enough to give a first shot to every Canadian in that age group. Provincial governments noted that they were ready to begin administering the shots as soon as the vaccines were delivered.