Entire communities of less than 4,000 people to be vaccinated at once

Vancouver Islanders living in communities with populations under 4,000 and “have challenges with accessibility (ie, accessible only by ferry or air or more than 3 hours ground travel from a hospital)” will be part of what Island Health is calling a “whole community approach” to immunization.

It means every adult in those communities will have the option to be vaccinated by April 12.

“Depending on the size of the community this may result in the entire adult population of the community having the opportunity to be vaccinated during a single health authority visit to the community (in one day or on consecutive days), or over two health authority visits,” read an Island Health statement.

“We’ve got 1400 people so to come in and do everyone at once just makes a lot of sense,” said Gold River Mayor Brad Unger.

“I think it’s the absolute best way to go when it comes to vaccinating a small community like this,” said Serena Ross, a Registered Pharmacy Technician at Gold River TelePharmacy. “There’s only so many people living out here and if we can do them as one big group, make sure everyone out here is as healthy as possible that’s definitely the way to go.”

“Everyone in this community has been abiding by the rules so I think it will be great for us for sure,” said Gold River resident Aubrey Brinkman.

Island Health says details on when the vaccination clinics will occur will be communicated in the coming days.

The communities are Bamfield, Cortes Island, Denman Island, Gabriola Island, Galiano Island, Gold River, Hornby Island, Kyuquot, Lasqueti Island, Mayne Island, North Pender Island, Penelakut, Port Alice, Port Hardy, Port McNeil, Port Renfrew/Jordan River, Quadra Island, Read Island, Saturna Island, Sayward, Sointula, South Pender Island, Tahsis, Thetis Island, Tofino, Ucluelet and Zeballos.

Island Health says if the whole community approach clinic is not scheduled prior to April 12th, residents over age 80 who live in these communities will have the opportunity to be vaccinated in/close to their community prior to April 12th.

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