B.C.’s top doctor says the province is considering shortening the four-month interval between first and second COVID-19 vaccine doses with supply expected to ramp up this month.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says we are entering a “new, encouraging point in our vaccine rollout,” noting that vaccines delivered to B.C. will rise substantially starting today.
According to the Government of Canada’s vaccine rollout webpage, B.C. will be receiving 274,950 vaccine doses this week, which is nearly double the 138,060 doses received last week.
Henry says moving up the four-month interval between doses will depend on supply and how many adults receive a first dose, although she did not give a threshold for how many people need to get a first dose for that to happen.
“The clinics that we’ve set up are ramping up this week to be able to deliver the vaccines that we expect to receive,” she said. “But we know that there’s been glitches along the way, particularly with the IT system when it comes to recording peoples’ doses.”
“In some ways, we’ve been building a spaceship as we’ve been flying it and we’re now entering into a new era, a new warp speed if you will and there are bound to be bumps along the way. But we will adjust.”
She also reiterated that the province expects to offer a COVID-19 vaccine to all people aged 16 and older in B.C. by July 1.
“And we think significantly before that,” she added. “As we’re into this phase and we can open up more vaccines for more people, we’ll be able to start the second doses for more people sooner.”
As of today, the province says 1,877,330 doses have been administered, including 91,731 second doses. That means just over 90,000 vaccine doses were administered over the past three days.
B.C. today is reporting another 2,174 COVID-19 cases as well as 15 deaths from the virus. Henry says 14 of the people who died from the virus were aged 70 or older, with the other person in their 50s.
Interior Health saw 106 new cases over the past three days. Elsewhere, there were 1,509 cases in Fraser Health, 438 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 61 in Island Health and 60 in Northern Health.
People in hospital with COVID-19 dropped from 511 on Friday to 474 today. There are now 176 people in intensive care units, which is two more people than Friday.
