Here's The Official Advice On When To Get Your Booster After Having COVID-19 In Canada

For anybody who is wondering when to get a booster after having COVID-19, there is some advice about what to do but it differs depending on where you live.

While some places in Canada don't have any guidance at all right now, four provinces and one territory have released information and here's what they have said.

In December 2021, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said that he believes the "best time immunologically" for someone to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster is 30 days after an active infection.

"It should absolutely be an mRNA vaccine at that time," Moore said. "And it doesn't matter which one, they are both very effective and interchangeable."

In B.C., people should get their booster dose after they've finished self-isolation. It also needs to be at least 10 days since their symptoms started or since the date of their positive test if they didn't have symptoms.

According to Doctors Manitoba, which represents physicians and medical learners, the guidance is to wait for a booster until an individual has recovered from an active infection — which is usually around four weeks.

"You don't need to drop everything and run to the clinic the day that you feel better, but please don't wait three months," said Dr. Joss Reimer, the medical lead for Manitoba's COVID-19 vaccine task force.

At the beginning of January, it was announced by the Quebec government that people who recently had COVID-19 will be able to get their booster as soon as they're symptom-free.

The province said those who had COVID-19 recently should get a dose "as soon as possible" to be better protected from the Omicron variant.

In Yukon, people are being told that they shouldn't get vaccinated while they're infectious or if they still feel unwell from a recent COVID-19 infection.

Instead, the advice is that people should get vaccinated once they're no longer infectious and are feeling better.

On January 11, the World Health Organization's Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition released a statement that said getting multiple booster doses of existing vaccines might not be enough to combat emerging variants.

It said that new vaccines that are designed to fight new variants could be more effective.

Health Canada has a robust website with all the latest information on COVID-19 vaccines and can answer any questions you may have.