B.C. launches spring COVID-19 vaccine booster program

B.C.'s health minister has announced a spring COVID19 booster campaign, with shots recommended for se‐ niors, Indigenous people over 55 and long-term care home residents in particu‐ lar.

Invitations to book a spring shot started rolling out Monday, according to Health Minister Adrian Dix.

Dix also told reporters the province is changing its rules around mandatory maskwearing in health-care set‐ tings, with health-care work‐ ers no longer required to mask in public settings amid a decline in reported COVID19 infections.

"We're returning to the rules that were in place prior to respiratory illness season," he said.

"That's an important change, and that's reflected in the changes that we put in place today at the centre at the end of respiratory illness season," he added. "It's a pat‐ tern that probably you could expect to be repeated in fu‐ ture respiratory illness sea‐ sons as well."

The province said in a statement that health-care workers will continue to wear appropriate protective equip‐ ment if required by healthcare facilities' risk assess‐ ments.

It also said people visiting health-care facilities are en‐ couraged to wear masks, cov‐ er coughs and stay away from others when sick.

The 2023-24 respiratory illness immunization cam‐ paign for the general popula‐ tion, launched on Oct. 10, re‐ sulted in almost 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine being administered and 1.56 million doses of influenza vaccine, according to the Health Ministry.

Dix said British Columbians have been more supportive of COVID-19 im‐ munization than residents of any other Canadian jurisdic‐ tion.

"We have about two and a half times the level of take-up on our [COVID-19] immuniza‐ tion program as the province of Ontario," the health minis‐ ter said. "I have to say that that was reflected in the nature of transmission through the [respiratory ill‐ ness] period."

The Health Ministry says about 3.9 million people in B.C. have yet to receive a booster shot against the XBB.1.5 Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The vaccines will be offer‐ ed at pharmacies, regional health authority clinics, pri‐ mary care offices and com‐ munity health centres.

The statement says the peak of the respiratory illness season has passed, but COV‐ ID-19 continues to spread at lower levels in the commu‐ nity.

It says protection provided by COVID-19 vac‐ cines decreases over time, particularly for older people, and a spring booster will en‐ sure protection.

Andrew Longhurst, a Simon Fraser University health policy researcher, is critical of the province's deci‐ sion to drop mandatory masking rules in health-care settings.

"Masks in health care is very low-hanging fruit if we want to preserve a function‐ ing health-care system," he told CBC News. "When you're pulling masks out of healthcare settings, that's a real oc‐ cupational risk to workers."

Longhurst says the com‐ paratively low uptake of booster vaccines during the 2023 respiratory illness sea‐ son, compared to previous years, was due to authorities downplaying the risks of COVID-19.

The researcher said au‐ thorities need to be upfront with the public about the po‐ tential long-term effects of the disease.