Vaccine challenges

By the beginning of this week, British Columbia had received 54,625 doses combined of PfizerBioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

In turn, 28,209 of these doses have been administered to those who fall under Stage 1 priority.

Stage 1 includes “residents, staff and essential visitors to long-term care and assisted-living residences. … Individuals in hospital or community awaiting a longterm care placement” as well as “health-care workers providing care for COVID-19 patients in settings like ICU, emergency departments, medical/surgical units and paramedics.”

Remote and isolated Indigenous communities are also included.

Some have looked at the 54,625 doses and questioned why only 28,209 had been administered to date, pointing out this vaccination rate is only around 51%.

Herein lies the challenge.

Since two doses are required per person, the 54,625 doses allows for 27,312 individuals to receive both shots of the vaccine.

B.C. has now administered over 28,000 doses. That means that there is not enough vaccine supply available for those vaccinated individuals to receive their second dose.

The supply to give those required second doses has not yet arrived, here in BC.

This additional vaccine supply must first land in Canada, then is transported to B.C. and finally distributed to various vaccination sites in our province to be available for those needing the second dose within a 21-28 day window.

This illustrates the immense challenges provincial health authorities are dealing with given the limited supply the federal government has managed to procure.

It is important to understand, with the limited supply of vaccine here in B.C., citizens must continue to take all precautions.

To put it bluntly, it will be some time before the vaccine delivery will make a significant impact.

My question this week: Are you satisfied with how the vaccine is being distributed in Canada?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.