More than four years after COVID-19 led to the largest pandemic measures in a century, B.C. is officially no longer in a medical emergency.
The move also means health-care workers who were fired because they did not comply with previous orders requiring COVID-19 immunization can apply and be hired for positions, the province stated.
“As British Columbia’s provincial health officer, I am issuing an order to end the public-health emergency for COVID-19 and rescinding all related orders,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health.
“Since March 2020, we have been in a provincial public-health emergency to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. While COVID-19 is not gone, we now have high levels of protection in the health-care system and in communities throughout B.C.”
Henry first imposed the vaccine mandate in October 2021 and the order was renewed in 2022 and 2023. It marked the first time in modern history that a health ministries across Canada and much of the world exercised their authority to require the health sector immunizations.
“The latest epidemiological data I have received shows the risk posed by the SARS CoV-2 virus is reduced,” Henry said Friday. Wastewater indicators and testing data show COVID-19 has levelled off and the number of people in intensive care and in hospitals is lower and stable. The level of protection provided by vaccines and hybrid immunity is also helping to protect us.”
Northern Health issued a statement Friday afternoon in the wake of Henry’s announcement.
“In response to the provincial health officer’s decision to end the COVID-19 public-health emergency, which ends the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in health-care settings, the province is making it mandatory for health-care workers to disclose their immunization status as a way to help keep people safe,” it reads.
“Moving forward, all health-care workers in public health-care facilities must report their immunization for COVID-19 and influenza and their immune status for other critical vaccine preventable diseases. Collecting these records will allow for quick action to be taken in the event of an exposure, outbreak or future pandemic to ensure health-care workers who are not immune follow appropriate measures. Depending on the circumstances, this could include masking, modified duties or exclusion from work.”
The mandatory reporting requirement came into effect Friday and applies to health-care workers in health-authority-operated and contracted facilities, and includes doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, volunteers and contractors.
Through the new reporting process, health-authority employers will be able to regularly connect with health-care workers, such as contractors, to ensure their vaccination status is up to date.
The province will offer vaccinations to employees and contractors as needed to ensure their health and that of their patients.
Henry’s move comes after repeated calls for the province to roll back its vaccine restrictions.
Earlier this month and before Henry’s announcement, a retired B.C. family doctor who served eight years as chief medical health officer for the Northern Health Authority called on the province to scrap its COVID vaccine mandate and offer to rehire the 1,800 healthcare workers it fired for being unvaccinated.
Dr. David Bowering, who lives in Port Clements on Haida Gwaii, told The Citizen the shortage of trained medical professionals is forcing some hospitals in the province to temporarily close their emergency wards and that is putting British Columbians at risk unnecessarily - and in some cases may be costing them their lives.
A group of 15 healthcare petitioners who lost their jobs sued the province for its 2023 extension of the order, arguing it caused undue hardship and harm. Their challenge was based on the following grounds:
- That COVID was no longer a significant risk to public health and the provincial health officer emergency powers no longer applied.
- That no medical evidence shows unvaccinated health-care workers pose a greater risk to vulnerable patients than vaccinated workers.
- That it was unconstitutional to force healthcare workers to choose between their own personal beliefs about the vaccines and keeping their jobs, because it infringed on rights to freedom of conscience and religion guaranteed by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In his May 24 decision, Judge Simon Coval dismissed the petition with one exception. He ruled it successfully demonstrated the province lacked justification for not allowing a reconsideration process for healthcare workers who work remotely and are not in direct contact with patients and for workers who hold purely administrative roles.
With files from Ted Clarke
