health officials looking at ways to boost vaccines in north b.c.
in the peace river north and south, as well as in the fort nelson local health areas, the vaccination rate has ranged from 46 to 50 per cent — the lowest levels in b.c.
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by: lisa cordasco
b.c.’s provincial health officer says some areas of the province are falling behind when it comes to vaccinations. for dr. bonnie henry, that is one reason she is currently touring the province’s north.
henry said there are many reasons why the rate of vaccination has been lower in some areas.
“we are not seeing wide-spread anti-vaccine sentiment. what we are seeing is there may not be as equal access,” said henry, speaking from prince george. “we know in the northeast, there is a number of smaller communities that are spread out and rural areas where it’s more challenging for people to get to a vaccination clinic. we have also had challenges with teams and staffing and being able to get everywhere in the north. that’s one of the reasons i’m here.”
data from the b.c. centre for disease control show 76 per cent of adults in the province have received their first dose of vaccine, but in the peace river north and south, as well as in the fort nelson local health areas, the vaccination rate has ranged from 46 to 50 per cent — the lowest levels in b.c.
henry made a public appeal to northern health residents to send in suggestions for where they would like to see pop-up clinics in their area.
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“for example, at a local farmers’ market, making it easy for people to go and get their fresh fruit and vegetables from your local farm and to get your vaccine at the same time. so it is ideas like that where the opportunity presents itself for the community to come together and to get vaccinated. i know northern health is looking at ways they can support that,” she said.
minister of health adrian dix said answering people’s questions and making access easy is already starting to pay off in other areas where vaccination rates were low.
“we’ll see in grand forks this weekend, we see in 100 mile house today, and we saw it in richmond where it was significantly below the provincial average. now, the richmond local health area is significantly above the provincial average,” said dix. “so our approach from the beginning is to work with communities and to work with people and not draw conclusions. when we immunize people in drive-thru clinics in fort st. john, or in a park like in grand forks, or a 36-hour vax-a-thon in surrey, we find different ways to reach people and raise those levels of immunization.”
b.c. reached a vaccine milestone on tuesday, with more than a million residents who have received their second dose. dix called it, “the best kind of day.”
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however, henry would not predict whether 75 per cent of british columbians would be fully vaccinated with second doses by july 21. that is when the federal government will decide whether to extend border closures between canada and the united states.
federal minister of health patti hadju has said reopening the border will depend, in part, on having 75 per cent of canada’s adult population fully immunized with two doses.
as of tuesday, 20 per cent of b.c.’s population has been fully vaccinated.
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