Ontario will need to “reassess the value” of COVID-19 vaccine passports in the coming weeks to decide whether the system should be discontinued, the Canadian province’s top doctor said Thursday.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Kieran Moore said while the coronavirus vaccine offers significant protection against severe illness, two doses of the shot do little to limit the spread of transmission of the Omicron variant of the disease.

“When we see a vaccine that doesn’t provide the sterile immunity like it did provide against Delta, we have to reassess some of the public health measures we put in place, reassess whether we maintain a proof-of-vaccination certificate certification process given the decreased benefit against transmission,” he said of the vaccine certificate programme which went into effect last September.

Vaccine certificates show proof of two COVID-19 shots and are used to access venues in the public space including restaurants and movie theatres.

While three doses of the vaccine reportedly decrease the risk of transmission by 60 per cent, Ontario premier Doug Ford has said he is not presently considering updating the vaccine passports to mandate three doses.