Vaccination drive hits ‘speed bump’ with late delivery

The COVID-19 immunization drive in B.C. will be slowed slightly in July with delayed shipments of the Pfizer vaccine.

But Pfizer plans to boost shipments in the last two weeks of July to make up for the shortfall, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Thursday.

“This is something that happens when we’re in a global pandemic with a global vaccine supply,” Henry said. “We know these speed bumps happen and, while disappointing, they are not unexpected given the complexity of the global immunization effort.”

Through the first two weeks of July, B.C. will receive about 360,000 fewer doses of Pfizer than expected, Health Minister Adrian Dix said. But that shortfall will be made up in the last two months of July, he said.

As well, through the rest of June, B.C. will receive more vaccine than expected, lessening the effect of the reduced Pfizer shipments.

As of Thursday, 76.5% of adult British Columbians have received at least one dose of vaccine. Of the 4.2 million total doses given, 768,000 are second shots.

Looking further ahead, Henry said it may become necessary to get a third dose of vaccine depending on how the situation with variants of concern evolves.

“There are studies ongoing whether we need a third booster dose, whether it needs to be modified a little bit to account for some of the different strains or variants of the virus that are circulating,” she said. “If it does turn out that sometimes people’s immune response wanes or lowers after a period of time then we will be providing a third booster dose, if needed.”

Between Wednesday and Thursday, 120 people tested positive for COVID-19, including 43 in the region served by Interior Health. That was up slightly from recent daily averages below 100 new cases.

More 675,000 doses of vaccine have now been administered in Interior Health and over 150,000 of those are second doses.

The health authority is planning to expand dropin hours and mobile clinics to get people people vaccinated. More than 5,000 people have been vaccinated at mobile clinics, mostly being held in smaller communities.