FRASER'S BEATING COVID BY BUCKING CONVENTION

Health service is winning war on virus by going to where people are, says Jim Sinclair.

The B.C. Day holiday is a chance to celebrate where we live, to reflect on who we are, to consider our past and the future that is ours to build. From a health perspective, this B.C. Day is a far better one than last year. What each one of us has done in our homes, our neighbourhoods, and our communities to stop the spread and get our immunizations has made the difference.

In Fraser Health, COVID-19 presented significant challenges. Fraser Health is responsible for the delivery of hospital and community-based health services to nearly 1.9 million people in 20 diverse communities, as well as 32 First Nations and five Métis communities from Burnaby to Fraser Canyon on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish and Nlaka'pamux nations.

We are the largest and most diverse health authority in the province, with more than 40 per cent of people in our region identifying as a visible minority. In addition, 42 per cent of B.C.'s industrial, manufacturing, food processing, and farm workers reside in our region, and 33 per cent of public schools and 40 per cent of young adults in B.C. call Fraser Health home. At the height of the pandemic, our region was averaging more than 700 cases per day, with a positivity rate of 12 per cent.

And yet, no one gave up. Each one of us made the difference, each one of us brought us to where we are today.

Each one of us should acknowledge the contribution we make, and the strength we add to the province we celebrate this long weekend. COVID is still with us, but we have weathered the worst.

Within Fraser Health itself, through our roles, we know our organization rose to the challenge, that it adapts constantly, and forms sometimes unconventional partnerships to stop the spread and ensure people have access to vaccines.

And we also know where our planning and co-ordination missed the mark — where we failed. We know that drove us to respond quicker with better approaches. We learned from our mistakes to find the right solutions.

Now, our region is averaging 20 cases or less per day, with a positivity rate under one per cent.

We hired more than 600 contact tracers and trained over 3,500 immunizers. We transformed our case and contact management system, deployed virtual solutions, established and staffed our testing and assessment centres, implemented rapid-action teams in vulnerable settings, and held hundreds of outreach vaccine clinics.

We learned that in addition to providing people with places to come to get vaccinated, we must go to where people are — hosting immunization clinics in non-traditional locations ranging from truck stops to beaches. And so that everyone knows they are home in Fraser Health, and that they are included in all we do to keep every one of us safe and healthy, we reach people in the language they speak, communicating in 26 languages.

Our regional vaccine coverage is over 80 per cent for first doses and over 65 per cent for second doses. And we will continue to reach out in every way possible to provide everyone with the opportunity to get immunized, because vaccines are our best defence to protect our gains and ensure COVID does not reassert itself.

The COVID-19 experience in Fraser Health is one of loss, and one of strength and recovery. It's a story of partnerships — within our community, with industry, with governments, and with each other. They saw us more effectively listen to and communicate with our communities, driving us forward, relaying culturally relevant public health information, supporting our immunization rollout, and quickly getting information to those who most need it. These partnerships will endure.

But again, that's within the Fraser Health organization. The story — the power of our fight — is how we reacted as residents, as neighbours.

The willing and sustained effort from almost two million people got us to where we are today. We absorbed so much as we adjusted to upheaval in our day-to-day lives in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our long-term care and assisted-living facilities, and our hospitals.

We faced unprecedented disruptions to our routines and livelihoods, all while taking the

The willing and sustained effort from almost two million people got us to where we are today.

steps necessary — and showing the care required — to keep our communities safe.

Each one of us made the difference.

This B.C. Day will be marked in many ways. But for every one of us — for all British Columbians across the province — this B.C. Day must surely stand for something else we've learned about ourselves these past 18 months: When faced with the extraordinary challenges a pandemic brings to our homes and neighbourhoods, we do not break. We fight back. We bridge cultures, we build communities, and we buck convention to beat COVID-19. We are the B.C. we celebrate, and in that lies our great promise for the future.

VAUGHN PALMER IS ON VACATION AND WILL RETURN ON SEPT. 2.