Dr. Bonnie Henry addresses reporters during a Tuesday, Oct. 22 news briefing where she outlined what to expect for the pending respiratory illness season. (B.C. government)

By Ian Holmes

vaccination season

Health officials ramp up for pending respiratory illness season

Oct 22, 2024 | 12:00 PM

NANAIMO — A “moderate” respiratory illness season is expected to materialize in the coming weeks as the province recently unveiled its annual vaccine strategy.

A week following the start of the B.C government’s immunization campaign, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry stated updated vaccines for influenza and COVID-19 are now available.

She said over 369,000 vaccines were issued last week alone, beating the previous record by nearly 4,000 doses.

“This represents about 141,000 updated COVID vaccines and 228,000 influenza doses on the opening week,” Dr. Henry told a Tuesday, Oct. 22 news conference.

Immunization Invites to priority populations started on Oct. 8.

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Health officials ramp up for pending respiratory illness season

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People can receive influenza and COVID vaccines simultaneously, which are available via more than 1,300 participating pharmacies, public health clinics and some primary care providers.

Based on what jurisdictions in the southern hemisphere experienced, Dr. Henry expects ailments such as the flu and RSV to pick up in late November or early December.

“That’s one of the reasons why I’m thinking we’re not likely to see that surge that we often see in influenza particularly and RSV until a little bit later this year. Last year we saw the surge start in early October.”

Dr. Henry said sporadic cases of the flu and RSV have been reported in the province so far this fall.

She noted COVID-19 “is all over the place” and has levelled off lately.

Dr. Henry said within the dominant Omicron form of COVID-19 is a newer fast-spreading variant.

“It doesn’t cause more severe illness, and we still believe that the updated Covid vaccines will provide good protection, at least in the short-term, against infection with all of these slightly mutated strains of Omicron.”

More information on the province’s immunization program and how to get vaccinated this fall can be found here.

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Ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes