VICTORIA — Health-care workers in long-term care facilities and intensive care units will be the first to get vaccinated in British Columbia as an immunization program to beat COVID-19 gets underway next week, the province's top doctor says.
Dr. Bonnie Henry said Wednesday an initial shipment of 4,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be available at two clinics in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions, before immunization is eventually expanded to 30 sites.
Henry declined to reveal the locations of the clinics.
A dry run at one of the clinics Tuesday on the handling of packaging around the delicate vaccine when it's frozen allowed people managing the program and those who would be working in it to grasp the reality of having a vaccine available, Henry said.
Prioritizing people who work at care homes will protect the elderly, who can't travel to sites where the Pfizer vaccine must be kept at a temperature of about -70 C, Henry said.
Seniors may be vaccinated at care homes with the Moderna vaccine, which does not have such strict storage requirements and is expected to be the next one in line to be approved by Health Canada.
People who work at grocery stores and poultry processing plants will also be given priority and about 380,000 people can expect to get a shot in the arm in B.C. by the end of March, Henry said.
Precautions such as washing hands and wearing masks will need to continue for a few months until enough people are vaccinated, she said, adding she expects a much more "social summer" is on the horizon in 2021.
"There is a light ahead and that light is shining brighter today," she said, adding the immunization program involves a marathon of unknown length.
The Pfizer vaccine is not recommended for people under the age of 16, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems, including cancer patients, Henry said.
She announced 619 new infections of COVID-19, along with 16 more deaths.
B.C. has now recorded 559 fatalities during the pandemic, as well as more than 39,000 cases of the illness.
Premier John Horgan said access to vaccines is a reason to celebrate briefly after he, Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix announced 10 months ago that the first case of COVID-19 had been diagnosed in B.C.
But plenty of work needs to be done in dealing with the logistics of administering various vaccines in the coming months, Horgan said.
"Although COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down, today and this week we have a glimmer of hope that although the end is not in front of us, the beginning of the end may well be," he said.
Horgan said he and premiers across the country will be on a call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday to discuss the arrival of vaccines, but he is hoping for more federal funding for health-care costs, half of which was once covered by Ottawa, instead of about 20 per cent.
— By Camille Bains in Vancouver.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2020.
The Canadian Press
