Dr. Bonnie Henry gives her daily media briefing regarding COVID-19 for the province of British Columbia in Victoria, B.C., Dec, 7, 2020.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
British Columbia will begin to distribute Canada’s first vaccine for COVID-19 next week to workers in long-term care homes and hospitals in the Lower Mainland. With just 3,900 doses of the vaccine in the first delivery, however, public-health officials are asking for patience as the province’s most complex immunization program in history slowly ramps up.
Hours after Health Canada announced it has authorized its first vaccine, B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, outlined plans for the distribution over the coming months.
“We do not have enough vaccine yet to stop transmission,” Dr. Henry said. “Right now we are focused on saving lives.”
Those who are most vulnerable to the virus – seniors in long-term care – and those caring for them will get priority. It will be well into 2021 before distribution will be broad enough to dramatically reduce pandemic restrictions.
There are only two clinics, both in the Lower Mainland, that are set up to handle the fragile Pfizer vaccine initially. Public-health officials will be booking care providers to come in to those clinics to be immunized, because they have not yet worked out logistics to deliver the vaccine to care homes or more remote communities.
By the middle of January, the province expects to be running nine clinics to reach a wider population in all of the health regions. That’s when other front-line workers, including police and firefighters, and people who work in essential services such as teachers, will be eligible. As well, B.C. will begin offering the vaccine to seniors living in the community, starting with the oldest first.
It will be summertime before the broader population will be able to get in the queue to be immunized, and that means restrictions such as mask requirements and limits on gatherings will remain in place for some time.
Premier John Horgan said British Columbians cannot let their guard down now. “This week we have a glimmer of hope,” he said. “As we see an increase in supply, we’re going to see an increase in optimism and an increase in opportunities for us to get back to what is remotely resembling normal.”
Dr. Henry said roughly two-thirds of the population will need to be protected before B.C. can expect community immunity. “When we reach that place, is when transmission goes down rapidly,” she said. British Columbians can expect a much more social summer in 2021, she said, with life returning to something like normal by the fall.
The Pfizer vaccine has very strict requirements, including that it be kept at temperatures of -70 C. The province will receive four trays packed in dry ice next week, each tray containing 975 doses of the vaccine. By the end of the month, the province expects to have tens of thousands of doses to distribute.
As well, a second vaccine from Moderna Inc. is expected to be approved shortly by Health Canada, and it has more flexible storage requirements, which will allow the province to begin to provide the vaccines to remote Indigenous communities.
Dr. Henry said the province is working on plans to get the Pfizer vaccine delivered to care homes, if the Moderna option is not available quickly.
“We are prioritizing residents of long-term care because we know that people in long-term care are the people who are most at risk of having severe illness or dying from COVID,” she said.
The priorities were shaped in part by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which has recommended the first doses go to residents of long-term care and their caregivers, front-line health workers, people over the age of 80 and adults in Indigenous communities where an outbreak would be harder to manage.
Still, less than 10 per cent of British Columbians are expected to be vaccinated by the end of March.
Health Canada announced Wednesday that it has granted interim authorization to a two-dose vaccine made by U.S.-based Pfizer Inc. and the German company BioNTech. Pfizer’s vaccine is administered as two doses 21 days apart.
It is not approved for children under the age of 16, pregnant women or those with compromised immune systems.
Dr. Henry said the development of a highly effective vaccine in less than a year is stunning – usually such a vaccine takes a decade or more to secure. She offered assurances that the vaccine is safe and effective.
The Premier added that he will be meeting with other first ministers on Thursday where the national distribution of the vaccine will be discussed.
While there is general agreement about distribution based on a per capita basis, he said, there will be talks about each region’s unique requirements.
Already, Manitoba has negotiated to receive extra doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, because of the higher proportion of Indigenous people in the province.
Mr. Horgan added that B.C. also has a high proportion of Indigenous people, as well as a large population of seniors.
“We’ve been making the case so aggressively, as we do on all matters, that British Columbia has unique populations, unique challenges, and we’ll continue to make that case tomorrow in the first ministers’ meeting and I’m optimistic that our arguments will win the day,” he told reporters.
We have a weekly Western Canada newsletter written by our B.C. and Alberta bureau chiefs, providing a comprehensive package of the news you need to know about the region and its place in the issues facing Canada. Sign up today.