Jabs, tests creep in the right direction

15,000 vaccines administered since Friday in B.C.

The number of British Columbians who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 successively declined on each of the past four days, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday.

Daily case counts through the Family Day long weekend ranged from 452 on Saturday to 302 on Tuesday, Henry said.

In the region served by Interior Health, 92 new cases were confirmed over the past four days.

Only about 15,000 more vaccine doses were given since last Friday, bringing the total number of people who’ve received at least one of the necessary two shots to 171,755.

But more doses of the Pfizer vaccine have begun arriving this week.

“This is encouraging, but our supplies remain somewhat limited,” Henry said.

Twenty-six people died of COVID19 since last Friday, making the total 1,314 since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

There are currently 4,189 active cases of the disease in B.C. with 231 people being treated for it in hospital; the rest are recovering at home.

While the vaccine rollout is progressing more slowly than originally anticipated due to delays in shipments, Henry said evidence shows those who’ve received at least the first shot have a high level of protection against COVID-19.

Some jurisdictions are delaying the second shot to three months after the first inoculation to cope with similarly limited supplies, Henry said. That ensures as many people as possible get the protection afforded by the first shot, she said.

“We know we have a buffer where we can safely delay the second dose if needed,” she said.

While new cases overall have been stable or trending down in some areas in recent weeks, Henry cautioned there’s been a recent uptick in cases, particularly in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions.

She said those rising numbers are a consequence of activities undertaken about two weeks ago, as that’s roughly how long it takes for COVID19 symptoms to develop after exposure to the virus.

“We need to reduce the transmission events that are happening in our communities,” Henry said. “We know it doesn’t take much for this spread to get out of control.”