Registered Nurse with the Calgary Rural Primary Care Network, Kimberly Gordon–Krushell provided a COVID-19 update to older adults during the Sept. 23 Seniors Teleconference.
At the time of the Seniors Teleconference, Chestermere had roughly 70 active COVID-19 cases, around 73 per cent of Albertans were full vaccinated and 82 per cent were partially vaccinated.
“If you experience symptoms and you’re fully vaccinated, you still need to get swabbed. If you are fully vaccinated and exposed to COVID-19 and have no symptoms you don’t have to quarantine, if you do have symptoms, you have to quarantine for 10 days,” Gordon–Krushell said.
“If you’re partially vaccinated you have to quarantine for 10 days if you’re exposed to a positive case, however, if on day seven you went for a swab and it’s negative, you are released from quarantine,” she said.
Adding, “It’s crazy the rules and regulations.”
Gordon–Krushell is encouraging all Albertans to pay close attention to the regulations for what to do if they are exposed to COVID-19, even if they are fully vaccinated.
“To be fully vaccinated means two weeks after your second shot,” Gordon–Krushell said.
“The truth is there are a lot of the flu and colds starting up, we’re starting to see it increase with school starting, but it’s really important if you get symptoms to get swabbed. It’s more if you develop complications from COVID-19, we want to know if you did have COVID-19 or not,” she said.
Gordon–Krushell and other health officials are seeing an increase of fully vaccinated Albertans between 50 and 80 years of age end up in the hospital.
“What seems to be the risk is if you have underlying health conditions. Even though you still have the two vaccines, you still have to be mindful that you could potentially still catch COVID-19,” Gordon–Krushell said.
“Vaccines make a difference. When it comes to the effectiveness of the vaccine, the majority of them are between 80 and 90 per cent after you’ve had the second dose, and that includes the variant,” she said.
Gordon–Krushell anticipates the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine that is available for high-risk individuals, will eventually open up to anyone who is a senior and has pre-existing health conditions.
“The third shot has to be eight weeks after the second, it’s going to provide you more memory cells and more protection,” Gordon–Krushell said.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contain genetic constructions that make a protein that goes to the surface of the virus, and it kicks in the immune system and fights the virus, while the AstraZeneca vaccine puts a fake virus in the system that causes the immune system to kick in, and then the fake virus disappears once the immune system is kicked in.
“For the people who have had COVID-19, we still don’t know how long their memory cells and the antibodies they’ve built last. As more results are coming out, we’re thinking it’s not super long,” Gordon–Krushell said.
Adding, “The vaccines build up memory cells and more antibodies, those antibodies will diminish, you have to have the right amount of antibodies, we want to keep it as high as possible and the only way to do that is to get the vaccine.”
Health officials are now seeing long-term COIVD-19 complications, from respiratory issues, sleeping issues, pain, fatigue, weakness, and brain fog.
To assist Albertans with long-term COVID-19 complications, rehabilitation clinics are now available and providing interventions, physiotherapy, education, and exercise to help individuals get back to their normal life.
“Do your best to ride it out, take care of yourself, be kind to yourself, and just know that it’s a hard time and you just have to do your very best to ride it out,” Gordon–Krushell said.
