Unprecedented vaccination program lurching to life across B.C. Interior
Imagine you’re inside Prospera Place watching a concert with 7,000 other people before anyone had even heard of COVID-19.
Now take that crowd and multiply it by 100, and you get a sense of roughly how many people in the Interior Health region are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, current versions of which require two doses, putting the potential number of shots needing to be administered in this part of B.C. alone at 1.4 million.
Oh, and every one of those jabs will be done by the end of September, according to the federal government, which is responsible for getting vaccines into the country and to the provinces, which are then distributing them to regional health authorities.
“It’s going to be a big, whole-community approach,” said Dr. Albert de Villiers, chief medical officer for the Interior Health Authority. “I say the whole community, because people will have to be patient.”
According to the four-phase plan outlined earlier this month by the B.C. government, mass immunizations will begin in April, starting with people ages 80 and up, then moving down in five-year increments from there.
The first group of those 80-plus contains includes about 246,000 people, while the last bunch, those 18 to 24, is the largest at 461,000.
Information about registering for the massvaccination campaign is expected to roll out in late February. People will be able to sign up online or by phone.
The province plans to set up clinics in 172 communities in partnership with municipalities, businesses and volunteers using facilities like arenas, halls and gyms.
De Villiers said training is already underway for volunteers, such as retired nurses, who will administer the vaccines.
But he’s uncertain how many community clinics will actually be required, because some demand could be accommodated in existing health-care settings like doctor’s offices and pharmacies.
As of Friday morning, roughly 123,000 first doses had been administered across B.C., representing about 1.4% of the 8.6 million shots the provinces expects to administer by the end of September.
Of those completed shots, about 20,000 were given within the Interior Health region during this, the first phase of the vaccination
plan, which targets residents, staff and essential visitors at long-term care homes, plus other front-line workers who are at risk.
De Villiers expects first doses to have been offered to everyone associated with long-term care homes by the end of this weekend.
While acknowledging there have been some hiccups at the federal level in obtaining the vaccine, de Villiers suggested people maintain a long view knowing those who are most at risk are getting their shots first.
The goal of the vaccination program is to build enough immunity to halt the spread of the virus – but not necessarily eradicate it.
“Like influenza, I think it’s going to be with us. I mean, we’ve still got measles,” said de
Villiers. “But if there’s enough people with immunity, it shouldn’t be able to spread as much anymore. Yes, like influenza, we might have some outbreaks.”
And there are also questions about the longterm efficacy of the vaccine.
“We don’t know, maybe five years from now immunity wanes and we have to vaccinate people again,” said de Villiers.
“I’m just saying: Let’s get as many people as possible protected – especially the vulnerable people, the people that are currently dying in long-term care, let’s get them protected and everybody around them – then let’s take it on from there and get prepared for whatever comes next.”