First COVID-19 vaccines arrive in B.C., vaccine expected on Vancouver Island next week

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WatchThe first COVID-19 vaccine doses were given today to a handful of healthcare workers in Ontario, and one long-term care resident in Quebec. B.C.'s first doses are set for Tuesday, and the first on Vancouver Island expected by next week. Rebecca Lawrence explains.

The very first COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive on Vancouver Island by next week.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s provincial health officer, said on Monday that the very first shipments of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the province yesterday night.

“This is momentous news and the first step in our path to protecting people most at risk in our communities and taking the pressure off our healthcare system.”

B.C.’s first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines will be given to individuals at two sites on the Lower Mainland – one site in Fraser Health and one site in Vancouver Coastal Health – later this week and by next week the vaccine will be available within Island Health.

“With the supply we are expecting to receive, the vaccine will be available in every health authority across the province,” Henry said. “I can’t tell you how exciting this is.”

B.C. is expecting to administer the first COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow. Carole Helter, a resident of Port Moody could be among the first to receive it after learned last week from her doctor that she is a candidate.

“When I got the phone call Friday I almost fell off my chair,” said Helter, who has severe asthma.

The news that vaccines are here or very close to arriving comes as the first COVID-19 vaccines in Canada were given to a handful of healthcare workers in Ontario and one long term care resident in Quebec.

A recent survey from the Angus Reid Institute shows Canadians are eager to receive the vaccine immediately. According to the institute, a month ago, 40 per cent of Canadians said they’d get the vaccine right away. That number has now climbed to 48 per cent.

As ‘many people as possible’ to get their first dose of COVID vaccine

British Columbia’s overall goal is to immunize 400,000 people by the end of March, with health care workers and residents in long term care getting the first doses, according to Henry.

However, the new Pfizer and the yet-to-be approved Moderna vaccine requires individuals to receive two doses. Unfortunately, both doses cannot be given at the same time.

“You can’t give them too close together or the immune system doesn’t recognize them as two different doses and you don’t get that boosting response,” said Henry.

Henry said the minimum interval between the first and second dose is 19 days and the recommended interval is 21 to 28 days.

As a result, British Columbia and other provinces in Canada are planning to vaccinate as many as they can with the first shipments they receive.

She said B.C. has shipments arriving next week as well as the week after and that those first shipments of vaccines will be given as first doses to “as many people” as possible.

“Our intent to right now is to give them all as first doses and then give second doses once we start receiving the vaccine in January,” she said.

British Columbia is currently at “peak risk” when it comes to COVID-19 transmission within the community, said Henry, adding that her priority is to protect as many people as possible with the first dose of the vaccine.

“I have a real challenge leaving vaccine in a fridge when there are so many people at risk right now,” she said.

READ MORE: BC’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan

Rebecca LawrenceRebecca Lawrence

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