More than 24,000 people have already received vaccines. At the government’s January 4th press conference, Dr Bonnie Henry unveiled the plan to immunize British Columbia.
150,000 people by the end of February
“From December to February, we aim to immunize approximately 150,000 individuals,” she began.
The focus, until the end of January, is:
- 70, 000 residents and staff of long term care facilities
- 13,000 people in assisted living facilities and their visitors
- 30,000 health care workers around the province
- Indigenous peoples living in remote communities. (Approximately 60 members of the Klahoose village, on Cortes Island, are expected to be among them.)
In Phase two of this first quarter, Provincial health authorities will focus on:
- community based seniors over the age of 80; the age limit is lower for people of indigenous backgrounds
- people experiencing homelessness
- people in correctional facilities, group homes, mental health residential care
- they are also trying to identify people who have home care and home support and making sure both recipients and staff are immunizied.
- More vaccinations in First Nations communities
When Vaccines become more available
“The contracts for Pfizer and Moderna will scale up in March. So we are expecting to have way more more of those vaccines once we get into April/May,” continued Dr Henry.
“we also expect approval in Canada of additional vaccines. We heard that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK. We know that Health Canada has received some of the data and has started the expedited review process both for AstraZeneca and and Janssen … We’re hopeful that those will be approved for use in Canada sometime during the first quarter of this year.”
These vaccines might be in use by April.
immunizing all of British Columbia
When supplies become available, the government plans to vaccinate everyone in the province.
“Our plan is to begin our mass vaccination strategy based on age, descending in five year cohorts after our +80 priority population is completed. We are working on how to ensure it is accessible and fair for people around the province. We will be detailing that later on this month.”
Top photo credit: The Moderna Vaccine, which is being administrated at the Klahoose village this week, courtesy Government of Baltimore, Maryland (Public Domain)