'Pandemic is over in La Crete,' lab firm CEO says after testing for antibodies in Alberta hamlet

A private blood-testing company's claim that the COVID-19 "pandemic is over" in a northern Alberta community could lull residents into a false sense of security, says an infectious diseases expert.

More than 1,200 people in the hamlet of La Crete, 700 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, paid $100 each in mid-December to have their blood tested for antibodies by Ichor Blood Services, a private lab specimen collection company based in Calgary.

The tests found antibodies in most of the 991 unvaccinated individuals who were tested.

Ichor CEO Mike Kuzimickas said he believes the results show La Crete is relatively safe from COVID-19.

"The pandemic is over in La Crete; they have reached herd immunity," Kuzimickas told CBC News in an email last month.

"We had 89 per cent of the unvaccinated population up there test positive for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibody, which would indicate that they've seen the virus, they've developed some level of cellular immunity, and they're kind of good to go," he said in a follow-up interview from Mexico, where he is spending the winter with his family.

"They've developed underlying T-cell memory and they don't have to worry about it."

Kuzimickas is a mechanical engineer without training or expertise in epidemiology, virology or vaccines. He said he is interpreting the data the best he can.

Experts say it isn't clear that immunity acquired from previous COVID-19 infection protects people against re-infection, especially with the new Omicron variant.

"If you roughly consider post-infection immunity as being kind of like a single dose of vaccine, these people [in La Crete] are still vulnerable to infection and they still could be vulnerable to severe outcomes as well," said Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Alberta.

Earlier in the pandemic, reinfection seemed rare, Saxinger said. But she said it is now clear that it is common, especially with the Omicron variant, which is much more infectious and seems to be better at evading vaccines.

"Infection alone is not as good protection as two doses of vaccine at the best of times," she said. "And certainly now it looks like three doses of vaccine are really required for good protection against this variant. So I don't think this is really relevant anymore."

The hamlet of La Crete is part of a northwest health region that includes about 25,000 people. It has the lowest immunization rate in Alberta, with just 35 per cent of its eligible population immunized with two doses.

The expansive region is home to many diverse communities, but La Crete has made headlines during the pandemic for its resistance to observing public health measures. La Crete's population is about 3,500, with 8,000 more in the surrounding area.