Canada is shifting to ‘living with the virus’ — for better or worse – CBC

Boosting vaccination rate key to lifting COVID-19 measures, but uncertainty lies ahead

Feb 05, 2022

Canada’s pandemic response is rapidly shifting toward “learning to live with the virus” — where COVID-19 is eventually treated like other seasonal illnesses, surveillance is massively scaled back and public health measures are widely lifted.

But as some provinces move closer to easing restrictions after facing the deadliest month of the pandemic since COVID-19 vaccines became widely available, there appears to be a dramatic divide on what living with the virus actually means — and how it will work.

​​Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Friday Canada needs to find a more “sustainable” way to deal with the pandemic and all existing public health policies, including provincial vaccine passports, need to be “re-examined” in the coming weeks.

“What we need to do going forward, as we emerge out of this Omicron wave, is recognize this virus is not going to disappear,” she said. “We do need to get back to some normalcy.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canada-covid-19-pandemic-lifting-restrictions-1.6340078