Indigenous Services Canada COVID-19 monthly update — November 2022

November 7, 2022 — Ottawa, Ontario, Traditional unceded Algonquin Territory — Indigenous Services Canada

Keeping up to date with COVID-19 vaccines continues to be one of the most effective ways to protect against severe illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. First Nations, Inuit and Métis across the country have access to vaccines through vaccine clinics and health centres. This includes access to the updated bivalent vaccines that are expected to provide better protection against the Omicron variant of concern, which is currently circulating in Canada.

Protection from COVID-19 vaccination decreases over time. A booster dose increases the immune response and helps improve protection against severe outcomes. These are available through your local healthcare providers.

If it has been six months since your last dose or since being infected with COVID-19, it is time to get another booster dose. This is especially important if you are at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19. In some provinces and territories you may be offered a booster as soon as three months based on local epidemiology and circumstances.

Keeping up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself against severe outcomes.

Another way to protect yourself and further reduce the spread of COVID-19 is by choosing to follow individual public health measures, including:

• Staying home when you are sick
• Practising proper respiratory etiquette (e.g., covering your coughs and sneezes)
• Improving ventilation
• Masking up in crowded indoor spaces
• Hand-washing or using hand sanitizer
• Physical distancing from others when you can
• Using rapid tests when you have been exposed or have symptoms

Monthly review — October 2022

In October 2022, the following data was reported from First Nations communities:

• 250 average daily reported active COVID-19 cases
  • A nearly 49% decrease from September 2022
• 13 newly reported hospitalizations
  • A 24% decrease from September 2022
• 1 newly reported deaths
  • A 67% decrease from September 2022

The following web pages and resources are updated regularly with COVID-19 information on:

• Confirmed cases of COVID-19
• Vaccines administered
• PPE shipments to communities
• Epidemiological summary of COVID-19 cases in First Nations communities