CINDY E. HARNETT
Times Colonist
After weeks of delays, the Pfizer vaccine is being delivered again, allowing immunizations to resume for those most at risk, such as residents in long-term care, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday.
In B.C. so far, 171,755 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, 22,914 of which were second doses.
Manufacturers have recommended second doses of vaccine be administered within 21 to 28 days, but from the beginning of the vaccine rollout, Henry has said the province would delay the second dose to at least 35 days and up to 42 days, since the first dose provides about 90 per cent immunity.
Most people in the province will receive their second dose by day 42, said Henry, but up to 6,000 people may wait longer.
Data on a longer gap between first and second doses are being reviewed in Canada and other countries, as well as by the World Health Organization. They suggest the delay does not have a negative impact on vaccine effectiveness, said Henry, adding it can allow the body to build up an immune response — build antibodies, for instance — although it’s still too early to know how long that initial immunity lasts.
“We are reassured that delaying [the second dose] for weeks, even two months — and in the U.K. and in Quebec, they’re looking at 90 days or three months for the second dose — we know we have a buffer where we can safely delay.”
Scientists and public health officials are monitoring closely when a decrease in protection begins after the first dose is administered, she said.
There were 58 new positive tests for COVID-19 on Vancouver Island over the four-day long weekend, of 1,533 provincewide. Fraser Health saw the most new cases, with 856 since Friday, while Vancouver Coastal had 392 cases.
Henry said she remains concerned that there is beginning to be an “uptick” in the seven-day rolling average of cases, the percentage of people who test positive of those tested and the reproductive rate, which measures how many people a person with the virus infects.
Henry said the goal is to keep the reproductive number well below one, but it’s rising above one in some areas of the province, including the Fraser Health region.
“The fact that we’re seeing an increase in the reproductive number means that we’re not having those safe interactions as much as we need to be,” said Henry.
The provincial health officer also reported 60 cases of highly transmissible variants: 40 of the U.K variant, 19 of the South African variant and one case of the Nigerian variant.
Another 26 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported since Friday, for a total of 1,314 to date.
On Monday, Island Health reported COVID-19 outbreaks at two long-term care homes in Nanaimo, including three confirmed cases. One staff person has tested positive for COVID-19 at Wexford Creek and one staff person and one resident have tested positive at Eden Gardens.
Admissions, transfers and social visits to the sites have been stopped.
Wexford Creek is owned and operated by Park Place Seniors Living and provides independent living, assisted living and long-term care. One floor within the long-term care facility is affected. All residents on that floor are being screened and tested for COVID-19, as are identified staff.
Eden Gardens is owned and operated by the Nanaimo Travellers Lodge Society. The outbreak expanded Monday to the entire facility. All 127 residents and 246 staff were to be tested.
Asked whether the COVID-positive staff at Wexford Creek and Eden Gardens had been vaccinated, Henry said nobody has a right to know an individual’s immunization status.
Vaccinating seniors and elders is very effective, she said, “but there are a few care homes where not all the staff are immunized, and what we need to do is make sure we understand why and we give more opportunities for people to receive the vaccine and receive the information they need to be comfortable receiving the vaccine.”
Public health officials will follow up, said Henry, “but still we know that one or two cases can happen even when everyone’s been immunized.”
The province extended its state of emergency on Tuesday until March 2.
B.C. Premier John Horgan said the beginning of the province’s mass vaccination program is just weeks away, and almost everyone in the long-term care system has been vaccinated. “We need to keep following public health orders, knowing they will keep us safe as we work to end the pandemic in B.C.”
There are now 4,189 active cases in the province, 231 are in hospital, including 74 in critical or intensive care.
The province is monitoring another 7,136 people for the virus.
