In his first press conference in almost exactly two months, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore announced expanded eligibility of fourth COVID vaccine doses to Ontarians aged 18 and older beginning Thursday.

As the province enters the seventh wave of the COVID pandemic, Moore’s press conferences and media appearances have grown more sporadic. His last media availability was on April 11 and health experts have called for more visibility from the province's top doc ahead of the peak of the seventh wave.

READ MORE: More leadership needed from the province to deal with summer COVID wave: experts

“While we've entered a new wave, Ontario is experiencing a slower trajectory in this wave as compared to previous waves, and we expect to see the peak of this activity in the next two weeks,” Moore said.

On the expanded fourth shot eligibility, Moore advised that anyone over 18 with an underlying medical condition, like those who “smoke or have diabetes and/or (have) any underlying illness” should get their second booster, but only five months after their previous booster dose and three months after any COVID infection.

He emphasized his “call to arms” was for this particular group and advised healthy individuals who have their first three COVID shots that “it’s not absolutely necessary at this point and that you can wait for the fall booster dose at that point.”

Moore also raised the “risk-benefit” analysis required in determining whether an individual should get the fourth booster, especially for “a young, healthy male individual” who has a “one in 5,000” chance of a myocarditis (heart inflammation) reaction to the vaccine.

“So this dose is really for those that are vulnerable to this virus to continue to protect,” Moore said. By the fall, Moore expects bivalent vaccines, which protect against specific variants of COVID-19, to be widely available by the fall but is awaiting guidance from Health Canada and the World Health Organization. Currently, the Omicron subvariant BA.5 is the dominant strain pushing the seventh wave, Moore said, but other subvariants including BA.4 and BA.2.75 have both been found in the province.

The province currently has the capacity to vaccinate 100,000 people a day, Moore said. While vaccine uptake for the first two doses, or primary series, of COVID vaccines is high in the province — 82.4 per cent of the population as of July 4 — first booster uptake has stagnated at 50.2 per cent. Moore “strongly encouraged” those who only have a primary series to get their booster shot, especially those 60 and older or at higher risk of severe illness.

On the province’s rapid antigen test distribution program, Moore said tests would continue to be distributed at grocery stores, pharmacies, schools and health-care facilities, and added that the program will be “reassessed by the end of the year.”

Moore didn’t rule out bringing back restrictions, like mask mandates, back to the province but said he’ll be looking at health-care capacity before making any decisions.

“We're at roughly 70 per cent of our ICU beds are being utilized. And we've made some projections. We're at roughly 119 Ontarians are in the intensive care unit today that will go up over the next two weeks, but it shouldn't impede or impact any local hospital’s ability to care for individuals. So, if that is threatened, we would make recommendations to government on universal masking in multiple settings. That's a contingency plan for the fall, it's certainly not a contingency for the present.”

“My heart goes out to all the front-line workers,” Moore said when asked about the current staffing crisis in Ontario that is leading to long emergency room wait times and, in some cases, closures.

READ MORE: Some ER wait times hit nearly seven times the provincial target in April

He acknowledged the existence of “staffing issues that need to be dealt with,” particularly for health-care workers that are “tired, fatigued (and) need their time away,” but went on to assure Ontarians that “the system’s still working at a very high functional level, although there will be regional issues with staffing from time to time.” Ontario Health is “doing all (the work)” on deploying health-care staff regionally, Moore said.

After 18 minutes of the press conference, most of which Moore spent taking questions from the media, Health Minister Sylvia Jones’ press secretary, Stephen Warner, called for the last question which drew backlash from journalists in the media studio who wanted more time with Moore.

“It’s been 12 minutes,” Warner said, attempting to defend his decision. The press conference continued anyways for another 10 minutes.

When asked why the minister’s staff was running his press conference, Moore said “I’m sorry,” before being cut off by another journalist.

Warner did not respond to QP Briefing’s questions about why the ministerial staff were running Moore’s press conferences, instead of ministry of health staff, and where Moore needed to be after the press conference.

Fourth COVID shot eligibility expanded to 18 and older

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