Vaccinations reach high in province

COVID-19 shots being given to older and frail British Columbians are performing better than other vaccines typically given to seniors, say health officials.

A total of 12,250 people got a COVID19 vaccine shot Thursday, the highest one-day total since the start of the immunization program in December.

“The preliminary evidence from our immunization of our elders and seniors living in long-term care facilities is actually very encouraging,” deputy provincial health officer Dr. Reka Gustafson said Friday.

“We are seeing a decline in outbreaks and the local assessment of effectiveness has shown us that there is substantial protection in the frail and elderly from vaccination.

“This is a very important finding because this is the population at highest risk of severe illness, and it’s not a population that always responds particularly well to vaccines, so this is an extremely good finding for us. We have not yet eliminated outbreaks completely, but we have seen strong results of vaccine effectiveness,” Gustafson added.

Across B.C., 508 people tested positive for COVID-19 between Thursday and Friday, with 59 of them living in the Interior Health region.

That makes for 75,835 people who’ve been infected since the onset of the pandemic. Just under 70,000 have fully recovered, and there are about 4,500 active cases, of whom 217 people are being treated in hospital.

At Big White, there has been one additional COVID-19 case since IH provided its last update Feb. 12. That brings to 237 the number of people attached to the Big White cluster, first identified in late November.

Of the 237 cases, 150 people either live or work at Big White. Eleven people are currently in self-isolation; the other 226 people have recovered.

“We are grateful that the numbers have flattened out over the last two weeks,” said Michael J. Ballingall, senior vice-president at Big White.

“We were worried about a spike after Super Bowl Sunday, as seen in many districts across the province, but today's report has us optimistic our team members, on-mountain residents and staff, and guests played by the rules and are continuing to follow our COVID-19 safety plan.”