Teachers request vaccine prioritization

As COVID-19 cases continue to mount, teachers in the Vancouver Coastal Health region are calling on the B.C. government to make vaccination of K-12 school staff and other front-line workers a top priority.

“We have already seen the province change the vaccination strategy in other ways, so we are asking B.C. to shift its current vaccination plan and focus on vaccinating all K-12 staff and other essential workers whose jobs require them to interact closely with the public,” Liz Baverstock, president of the Richmond Teachers' Association, said in a statement on Friday.

The statement was signed by six other presidents of teachers' associations, in Vancouver, North

Vancouver, West Vancouver, Powell River and District, and the Sea to Sky region.

B.C.'S plan to vaccinate front-line workers has been on hold since late March after it suspended the use of the Astrazeneca vaccine for people age 55 and younger due to concerns over a rare blood clotting condition.

On Friday, B.C. recorded 1,262 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the number of active cases to 9,574.

There are 4,111 cases involving variants of concern in B.C., including 105 considered active.

Two people died in the last 24hour reporting period, bringing the death toll to 1,495.