Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the first shipment of the Moderna vaccine won't be as full as promsied. (Facebook/Gov't of B.C.)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

covid-19 update

Moderna vaccine suffering familiar production issues, shipment to B.C. reduced

Jan 29, 2021 | 3:26 PM

NANAIMO — Further shipment delays are expected during B.C.’s rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced on Friday, Jan. 29 the incoming shipment of the Moderna vaccine won’t be as fulsome as originally expected.

“The supply of Moderna vaccine scheduled to arrive next week has been reduced by about 20 per cent due to some difficulties at the Moderna processing plant. Of course, this is disappointing for all of us.”

No shipments of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in B.C. this week due to production issues in Europe, which is expected to significantly affect the new two weeks of shipments.

Dr. Henry expressed optimism about the amount of vaccines entering B.C. in the third week of February will have returned to promised levels.

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She said public health remains confident the vaccine program will open up to all B.C residents in April, despite production challenges.

“All long-term care residents and people who care for them have been offered vaccine in all health authorities around the province. We have very high uptake.”

She announced 514 new COVID-19 cases across the province, as well as five additional fatalities.

The number of active cases in B.C. rose by roughly 100 to 4,557. The number of people in hospital and receiving intensive care remained relatively unchanged.

Island Health confirmed 30 new cases on Friday. The number of active cases rose by roughly 10 to 233 across the health authority.

There’s currently 170 active cases in the vast central Island region, which had led COVID-19 infections on Vancouver Island for much of the pandemic. Roughly two thirds of all active cases within Island Health are in the central Island area.

There is a data discrepancy between Island Health and the province, based on the timing of COVID-19 results. NanaimoNewsNOW reports local verified data from Island Health.

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