Health officials announced an accelerated vaccine timeline on Monday, March 1, as more details become available on what the rollout is set to look like province-wide.
Phase 1 wrapped up last week in Golden, meaning all long term care (LTC) residents and staff in town received their second dose of the vaccine.
Phase 2 got underway on Monday, with Dr. Trina Larsen Soles saying the focus will be on seniors in group living who didn’t qualify in the first round, such as those living in Abbeyfield, and those who are 80 years and older in the community.
Appointments will be available for booking through an Interior Health central booking phone number that will become live on March 8, with Larsen Soles explaining that the expectation is that appointments will be handed out in five year increments each week throughout March.
When the time comes, Larsen Soles says that the best vaccine available is whichever one you can get first.
“The best one is the first one you are offered, because it not only protects you but those around you and the more protected you are the quicker, the better,” said Larsen Soles.
Phase 2 is expected to wrap up at the start of April, when the province will open up appointments for a wider age range.
Anyone 18+ who wants a vaccine is expected to get at the very least their first dose by mid-July as a part of the accelerated timeline, according to Larsen Soles, as B.C. prioritizes ensuring more people get their first dose, rather than a smaller amount receiving both.
The decisions to extend the waiting period between doses in an effort to get more people vaccinated faster came after a study by Dr. Danuta Skowronski with BC Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Gaston De Serres from Quebec, published as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine Feb 17, 2021, suggesting a single dose of the vaccine is still 90 per cent effective.
“With the wildcard that is the variants, the question is is it better to fully protect a small amount of people and let the variants romp around or try to get everyone partially protected to control the variants,” said Larsen Soles.
“These vaccines have been surprisingly effective, the threshold for an effective vaccine is 50 per cent, with the flu shot coming in around 60-70 per cent.”
The Astra-Zeneca vaccine, which was approved just last week, as well as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, fall into that 60-70 per cent range.
Larsen Soles says that looking at the data from the UK, where variants are running rampant but case counts are declining amid their rapid vaccine rollout and strict lockdown, there’s enough evidence to suggest that the vaccines are doing their job in slowing the spread and keeping people out of hospitals.
Larsen Soles estimates that about 200 people in Golden have been fully vaccinated since the start of the rollout and that she hopes to see another 200 receive their first dose by the end of the month, depending on shipments and allotments.
