B.C. is seeing significant hold-ups in the amount of COVID-19 vaccine supplies coming to the province.
During Monday’s COVID-19 briefing, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry detailed the shortfall.
She says this week, B.C. won’t be getting any Pfizer or Moderna vaccines at all, and in the short term, the province is only getting a trickle of what it was originally expecting.
“This weekend we found out, as well, that the amounts that we were expecting to receive in the first week of February have been dramatically reduced and we, right now, do not know how much, if any, vaccine we will be receiving the following two weeks in February.”
Dr. Henry warns that this will dramatically impact Phase 1 of B.C.’s immunization plan.
She says they will be delaying second doses up until Day 42 for this short period of time.
“This means we can use what little supply, right now, we have to finish our long-term care immunizations and to address the outbreaks that are happening in hospitals and our communities,” she said. “This is about putting out fires before they get out of control.”
Over the past three days, there have been 1,344 new cases of COVID-19.
A total of 328 people are hospitalized with the virus, 68 of whom are in ICU.
There have been 26 new COVID-19 related deaths since Friday.
New cases by region over the past three days:
Vancouver Coastal Health – 314
Fraser Health – 618
Vancouver Island – 73
Interior Health – 234
Northern Health – 104
People who reside outside Canada – 1
