Deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to B.C. resume this week, according to the province. Some doses have already arrived, with more expected in the coming days, according to Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer.
“Our supply still remains somewhat limited and we need to continue to build up our program as more supply comes in and we have more stability in the arrival of vaccine over the coming couple of weeks and into March,” said Henry, who added the focus for health authorities will be providing second doses to high-risk populations.
There is evidence from the WHO showing a delay of several weeks between the first and second doses does not have negative effect on vaccine effectiveness, according to Henry.
The province has administered 171,755 COVID-19 vaccine doses, including 22,914 second doses.
Island Health
There are 151 active COVID-19 cases in the Island Health region, including 67 reported since Friday. That number includes 95 in the central island region, down 45 since Friday, along with 47 in the south and nine in the north. Two additional deaths were reported, bringing the total to 22.
Sixteen people are hospitalized with the virus and seven are in ICU, according to the B.C. government’s COVID-19 dashboard.
There were 597 COVID-19 tests completed in the past 24 hours.
Province-wide
B.C. recorded 1,533 new COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths over the long weekend. There are 4,189 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, including 231 people in hospital and 74 in critical care.
Health authorities have identified 60 cases of variants of concern, including 40 of the UK variant, 19 of the South African and one of a variant first identified in Nigeria.
There are 7,136 people under active public health monitoring as a result of exposure to the virus, according to Henry.
