Mark the calendar!
Northern Health received an early Christmas present today (Dec. 21) with its first set of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines delivered to University Hospital of Northern BC (UHNBC) in Prince George.
The authority says high-risk health care workers, and long-term care and assisted-living residents are among the priority groups that'll receive the free vaccine first, as predetermined by B.C.'s Ministry of Health.
Those first doses are set to take place in the city this week and Northern Health says it hopes to have all regional residents vaccinated by the end of 2021.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during her update this afternoon that all health authorities in B.C. have received doses of the vaccine.
On Dec. 9, Health Canada approved the Pfizer vaccination as safe for those infected with COVID-19, concluding the dose was proven effective in 95 per cent of patients
"Vaccines do more than protect the people being immunized, they also protect everyone around them," reads a statement from Northern Health on the momentous occasion.
"As more vaccines are approved by Health Canada and shipment volumes ramp up, more communities and more groups of people will receive the COVID-19 vaccine."
Northern Health is also expecting Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine to ultimately be approved by Health Canada sometime in the new year.
To date, 3,644 people have been vaccinated, most of them health care workers in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health regions.
About 380,000 British Columbians are expected to be vaccinated by the end of March.
As of this publication, Northern Health has recorded 1,599 test-positive infections since March, including 15 deaths from the virus.
Currently, there are 487 active cases in the authority, 20 people in critical care among 43 hospitalizations, and 1,097 recoveries.
