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All staff at long-term care and seniors’ assisted living facilities in B.C. must be fully vaccinated, health officials announced today.

Vaccination mandatory for B.C. care home staff

By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Published 3:51 PDT, Thu August 12, 2021

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Staff at long-term care and seniors’ assisted living facilities in B.C. must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 12.

“I recognize that this is a change from the direction that we announced earlier in the spring, in June, where we thought it would be sufficient to have additional measures such as testing in place,” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. “We have now seen with the transmission of the new variants that we need extra protection in this highly risky situation.”

Henry said the eight outbreaks in long-term care homes were introduced by unvaccinated people, and can then spread even to those who are immunized, including residents. The new rules will also apply to volunteers and personal service workers who go into those facilities, and that change will take effect immediately.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said the requirements will differ for visitors, with specific measures for unvaccinated visitors to care homes.

“My message to everybody, whether they’re visitors or volunteers or anybody else, is that now is the time to get vaccinated,” he added.

B.C. health authorities reported 513 new cases of COVID-19 today, one of which is epidemiologically linked. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 154,362 cases.

Of the new cases, 92 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), 108 in the Fraser Health region, 29 in the Island Health region, 271 in the Interior Health region, 13 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

Locally, there were 47 cases in Richmond last week (Aug. 1-7) according to the latest data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. This is more than double the previous week’s count of 21, and is the highest in a single week since late May.

While case rates are still on the rise, Henry said there is not a need to take additional measures across the board, or in specific areas of the province other than the Central Okanagan, at this time.

There are 3,834 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 81 of those people are hospitalized, 33 of whom are in intensive care.

To date, 7,141,196 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 3,318,751 of those are second doses.

This means that 83.1 per cent of adults and 82.3 per cent of people aged 12 and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 73.3 per cent of adults and 71.6 per cent of those aged 12 and older have received two doses.

Henry said with high immunization rates, transmission continues to be primarily among unvaccinated people. She added that the province is “no longer seeing the same types of impacts across society that we were seeing prior to having vaccination.”

Immunization for children under the age of 12 is likely coming near the end of this year, Henry said, with the Pfizer vaccine aiming to submit information for approval in September or October. The Moderna vaccine is likely to be a few months later, in early 2022.

Those who choose not to be vaccinated may later run into complications around some higher-risk environments like large sporting events or concerts.

“Now is the time to get immunized, because it is going to have an impact on your ability to do some of those things that you may want to do,” said Henry. “If you choose not to be immunized, then you don’t necessarily have the right to go into a higher-risk environment with a bunch of people who have been immunized and are protected.”

Sadly, there was one new virus-related death reported today, bringing that total to 1,779.

Active outbreaks continue at eight long-term care facilities.

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and to find a testing centre near you: http://www.bccdc.ca/ or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.