Nearly 94 per cent of B.C.’s medical professionals vaccinated against COVID-19
New data from the province shows that a vast majority of health care practitioners in British Columbia have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
In March, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued the Health Professionals COVID-19 Vaccination Status Information and Preventive Measures order to collect information about vaccination status of practising regulated health professions.
Today, May 10, Health Minister Adrian Dix released data on the vaccination rates for health care professionals current to April 2.
“Data that we’re reporting on today are for 17 of the 18 colleges,” said Dix.
“About 94 per cent overall have been vaccinated or are medically exempt.”
Dix noted that data for the final group, the College of Nurses and Midwives, has not been fully collected as there are over 63,000 individuals under the regulating body. The rates for those workers will be released in the coming weeks.
The statistics from the province show that dieticians, physicians and surgeons had the highest vaccination rates at 98 per cent, while the naturopathic physicians had the lowest rate at 69.2 per cent.
Vaccination rates in B.C.’s health professions as of April 25, 2022:
- Dieticians – 98 per cent
- Physicians and Surgeons – 98 per cent
- Pharmacy Technicians – 96.8 per cent
- Pharmacists – 96.7 per cent
- Occupational Therapists – 96.9 per cent
- Psychologists – 96.1 per cent
- Optometrists – 96 per cent
- Dentists – 95.9 per cent
- Physical Therapists – 95.2 per cent
- Opticians – 94.9 per cent
- Denturists – 92.9 per cent
- Speech Language Pathologists – 92.9 per cent
- Dental Assistants – 92.8 per cent
- Dental Hygienists – 92.6 per cent
- Audiologists/Hearing Instrument Practitioners 91.9 per cent
- Dental Technicians – 90.7 per cent
- Massage Therapists 87.9 per cent
- Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists – 79 per cent
- Chiropractors – 78.1 per cent
- Naturopathic Physicians – 62.9 per cent
Colleges are the regulating bodies responsible for licensing and establishing standards of practice for health care workers.
Henry stated that having this information available will allow British Columbians to make informed decisions to receive in-person treatment or services while also protecting themselves against COVID-19.
“We will continue, my office, to work with each of the colleges to ensure we have standards in place so that people will be able to make informed decisions as they seek treatment from individual practitioners across B.C.”
Henry added that the overall health care worker vaccination rate, which was reported at 93.9 per cent as of April 25, will likely be going up in the coming weeks.
“The aggregated data that we’re putting out today likely underestimates a little bit vaccination coverage, mostly because, as we mentioned, the College of Nurses and Midwives have had some challenges in getting this data, and we have a column where people are either known to be non-vaccinated or for whom we do not yet have information,” Henry explained.
“As you are probably aware, there is new registrants, new people coming in to practice in different parts of our health system every year and every month, and so it takes some time for those to be updated.”
Henry and Dix encouraged all British Columbians to get their COVID-19 vaccines, whether it be a first, second, or booster shot, to be better protected against the virus.