Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says B.C.'s vaccine rollout will continue. (Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

covid-19 update

B.C.’s vaccine rollout continues unabated, 65 new in Island Health

Jan 18, 2021 | 4:13 PM

NANAIMO — B.C.’s vaccine rollout won’t pause due to production delays.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said delays in producing the Pfizer vaccine will impact B.C. the hardest next week, not in February and March as originally anticipated. However, she said B.C. will continue to wait 35 days between the first and second dose.

“We knew the process was going to change and be changing frequently. We know there’s challenges with such a large program which will go on for many weeks,” she said on Monday, Jan. 18.

She said B.C. remains on track to complete the vaccination rollout to high-risk health care employees and seniors in care by the end of March as planned.

“It’s amazing we can have in such a short period of time a new technology that is 95 per cent effective in protecting someone from a new disease and even more effective at preventing people from having severe illness and dying from COVID-19.”

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She said the goal is to ease restrictions at long-term care homes one week after the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is administered in March.

Information about COVID-19 vaccinations within B.C. will now be available on the BC CDC dashboard, alongside critical information such as new cases and hospitalizations.

There are currently 4,326 active COVID-19 cases within the province, according to the BC CDC.

This is the lowest number of active cases found since Nov. 7.

There are 343 people in hospital, 68 of whom are receiving intensive care.

In Island Health, 14 people are in hospital with three receiving intensive care.

A record 65 new cases were reported on Monday, making it the second worst weekend period for the health authority, surpassing the weekend before.

There is a data discrepancy between Island Health and the BC CDC, based on the timing of COVID-19 results. NanaimoNewsNOW reports the Island Health confirmed data.

The cental Vancouver Island region has more than two-thirds of Island Health’s active cases with 130.

Two additional fatalities occurred within Island Health, out of the 31 reported since Friday.

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