B.C.’s booster shot campaign ramped up

Getting booster shots in more British Columbians faster is another key element of the province’s plan to deal with rising COVID-19 cases and the Omicron variant.

Health Minister Adrian Dix announced today the vaccination capacity will be increased and the campaign for age-based population will be accelerated from January to March 2022.

“We won’t be offering them to everyone all at once. We’re going to go through age category by age category based on risk and based on the medical evidence that supports this program,” said Dix.

B.C.’s booster shot plan (Image credit: Province of B.C.)

By the end of January, the goal is to provide 320,000 booster shots per week. Under the projections, the booster program would be completed by end of March, two months earlier than the plan back in October.

That will increase vaccination capacity by 62 per cent, with more pharmacies added to provide shots.

Large vaccination sites will be used and Interior Health, along with other health regions, is in the process of securing larger spaces in a number of its centres.

Since the booster campaign started in late October, 727,761 third doses have been administered to people 18 and older, plus 101,266 pediatric vaccines.

The program is currently operating at 35 per cent more capacity than previously announced, including pharmacies and health authority clinics.

The province says 67 per cent of people aged 70+ have received a booster along with more than 50 per cent of people aged 65 and older.

About 65,000 healthcare workers have received their booster, along with 125,000 CEVs (clinically extremely vulnerable).

Dix said scheduled non-urgent surgeries will be postponed starting Jan. 4, 2022 to manage pressures on hospital capacity and to help with the redeployment of key staff.

“Urgent and emergency surgeries will continue,” the minister stated.

He said it will mean about 3,000 less surgeries are performed each week.  Rescheduling will be determined based on capacity and COVID impacts on a region by region basis.

(Image credit: Province of B.C.)