
Officials say 14,211 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed in Interior Health, as of the end the day yesterday.
Chief medical health officer, Dr. Albert De Villiers, says 117 out of roughly 150 long-term care homes in Interior Health have been vaccinated.
He says some rural and Indigenous communities have gotten the vaccine as well, including the Canim Lake Band which now has 60 cases linked to an outbreak of the virus.
De Villiers says in just over a week, the main focus for vaccine distribution will be acute care workers.
“That started already, a week or two ago. And we are getting people in (emergency rooms), in COVID-19 units, in ICU, those frontline healthcare workers. And then we’ll move into the next priority group which will also mean working with the First Nations, as we mentioned before.”
As of yesterday, all residents in long-term care homes in the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap have reportedly received a vaccine dose. All of the 150-or-so care homes across the health authority will be done by the end of the month, according to IH.
“Just making sure we get to all the staff,” De Villiers says.
“Because, for instance, for staff, we have offered it once to all long-term care homes. But we know staff work different shifts and they’re not always there every time. So that’s why I say towards the end of next week, we want to make sure we actually got to all the residents and all the staff in long-term care.”
In 2019, Interior Health had a population of just under 800,000 residents.