Henry says stay small until vaccines arrive
Sixty-three new cases of COVID-19 were reported between Tuesday and Wednesday in the region served by Interior Health.
That continued a downward trend from the 100-plus new cases that were reported on several days in January.
Province-wide, 414 new cases were reported Tuesday, about half the number that were being detected daily in early December.
There are 4,426 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., with 278 people being treated in hospital; the rest are recovering at home.
Although new case counts have been on a downward trend, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix suggested more enforcement of COVID19 protocols is on the way.
“Where we see locations with high transmissions, public health teams and WorkSafeBC will increase surveillance, focus their investigations, and, if need be, take further action to close the gap,” they said in a joint statement.
Just over 142,000 British Columbians have received their first of two COVID-19 vaccine shots, a number little changed in recent days due to slowdowns in global deliveries.
Dix and Henry repeated calls for people to remain in their household bubbles, avoid socializing with others, and not engage in unnecessary travel.
“Until the COVID-19 vaccines are available for all of us, let’s choose less and choose small. This is the path forward to brighter days ahead,” they said.
Also Wednesday, the BC Centre for Disease Control released its latest surveillance report on the COVID-19 situation across the province.
It shows the number of new cases now being reported weekly across B.C. is almost half the number recorded in mid-November, 59 cases per 100,000 of population compared to 103 per 100,000 of population.
The incidence of new cases is highest in the Northern Health and Fraser Health authorities. The incidence of new cases in the Interior Health Authority is equal to the provincial average, and it’s two-thirds below the provincial average on Vancouver Island.
OTTAWA — Procurement Minister Anita Anand said this week she is confident Canada's COVID-19 vaccine deliveries will only get better going forward, but just hours after she made the remark, Canada's vaccine purchases got slammed again.
“The worst week was last week,” Anand said Tuesday night.
Canada’s vaccination program was just starting to move past first gear in mid-January when production slowdowns from Pfizer, and then a delay expanding production from Moderna, suddenly saw Canada’s vaccine deliveries plummet.
Canada got no doses last week, and this week is getting only 20% of what was previously promised from Pfizer and 80% of what had been promised from Moderna.
Provinces and territories, which in mid-January got close to vaccinating 50,000 people a day, only vaccinated 5,000 people Jan. 31.
Then Europe, in a battle with AstraZeneca over delays to shipments, imposed export controls on European-made vaccines. But European Commission officials told Canada the controls wouldn’t affect Canada’s vaccine.
A spokeswoman for the Commission confirmed Canada’s shipments were approved, and that the controls will be used “only in very limited cases.”
This week Anand got confirmation that Pfizer and Moderna had been authorized to send the doses to Canada and the shipments had been sent.
Tuesday afternoon, she received confirmation from the global vaccine-sharing initiative known as the COVAX Facility, that Canada would be shipped at least 1.9 million and as many as 3.2 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine by the end of June.
Canada invested $440 million in COVAX last fall, half to secure up to 15 million doses of vaccine for Canada, and half to help buy vaccines for low- and middle-income countries that can’t afford to buy vaccines on their own.
Canada was told of its first allocation in a letter Jan. 30, subject to regulatory approvals and the available supplies of vaccines.
The figures were confirmed Tuesday when COVAX shared with Canada a draft document that COVAX planned to publish to its website the next day.
When the document went live Wednesday morning, the higher end of the range had disappeared, and Canada was allocated 1.9 million doses by the end of June, with no mention at all that it could go up to 3.2 million.
Canada is not alone in dealing with a change. Jamaica and the Philippines both published their expected range of deliveries, only to see the COVAX document list the lowest end of the range Wednesday.
Cecely Roy, a spokeswoman for Anand, said COVAX hasn’t explained why.
With two doses required per person, it could be the difference between vaccinating another half a million Canadians before Canada Day.
Canada is also feeling heat from critics who argue Canada is contributing to vaccine nationalism, using its wealth to buy up vaccine doses privately, and not doing enough to ensure vaccines get distributed equitably worldwide.
International Development Minister Karina Gould said that’s why Canada joined COVAX. But Gould balked at the idea Canada should forego deliveries from COVAX in favour of sending more doses to poorer countries.