Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) started administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at six long-term care homes in the health region two days before Christmas.
“As soon as we learned the Pfizer vaccine was approved for secondary distribution at long-term care homes, our team took action to ensure we could start administering the vaccine on-site,” VCH said in a Dec. 23 statement to Coast Reporter. “Earlier today we began on-site immunization at six long-term care homes in VCH currently experiencing outbreaks.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was initially only available at two sites in the province – in the VCH and Fraser Health regions – because of ultra-low temperature storage requirements.
But as of Dec. 23 it was approved to be transported to long-term care homes. “We’ve now got the go-ahead to be able to move some of the frozen vaccine to other places,” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry during a media briefing that day.
Following the briefing, the health authority told Coast Reporter it is not disclosing locations at this time, and did not say whether health-care workers on the Sunshine Coast have begun receiving immunizations.
“We continue to prioritize vaccinations for staff at long-term care homes in VCH with a goal of immunizing the majority of staff and residents over the coming weeks,” said the statement.
No long-term care homes on the Coast have experienced outbreaks, as of Dec. 23.
The vaccine, which studies have found to be 95 per cent effective, arrived on the North Shore Dec. 22 and that morning health-care workers lined up for their first dose.
As of Dec. 23, 5,603 people in B.C have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
That day’s media briefing also came with the news Health Canada approved the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
It is expected to arrive in the province next week and some initial doses will go to rural and isolated First Nations communities, said Henry.
Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine is more flexible since it can stay at fridge temperature longer and doesn’t have ultra-low freezing requirements. It can be broken into 100 doses for transport to communities. “We can start to address some of the urgent needs that we have to protect people in some of our remote and isolated, particularly First Nations communities, and also residents of long-term care homes,” Henry said.
According to the BC Centre for Disease Control, the first groups eligible to be vaccinated between December and February will be residents and essential visitors of long-term care facilities, people waiting for placement in long-term care homes, health-care workers caring for COVID-19 patients, including paramedics, and remote and isolated First Nations communities.
Between February and March, people aged 80 years and older, Indigenous elders, and seniors aged 65 and older will have access to the immunization program, as will people experiencing homelessness or using shelters, people in provincial correctional facilities, adults in group homes or residential care, long-term home support staff and people receiving their care, hospital staff, community general practitioners and medical specialists.
Between December and March, the province is expected to receive 792,000 doses.
On the lower Sunshine Coast, between Dec. 13 and 19, there were 14 new cases of COVID-19. Five cases were reported for Powell River. Howe Sound, which includes Whistler and Squamish, had 17 new cases.
There were 518 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Dec. 23 for a total of 48,027 cases in B.C., of which 9,137 are active. Dr. Henry announced 19 new deaths, for a total of 796 COVID-related deaths in the province.
She also noted that the ongoing public health restrictions have resulted in a “slightly” bent curve. “We’re now, perhaps, on a downward trajectory,” she said, “but it does not take much to tip us back over.”
– with files from Brent Richter
