Monday October 4, 2021 | COLWOOD, BC [Updated on October 22, 2021 with clinic numbers for Oct 6 & 20]
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
Improving the vaccination rate in the west shore is part of the mission of the Island Health COVID-19 immunization clinics being held at Royal Roads University. As well, it’s convenient for students, teachers and other personnel on the campus
The clinics started in September (three were held last month), and two more are offered this month (October 6 and 20).
Located at 2005 Sooke Road in Colwood, the west shore community at large has also been finding the Royal Roads University location to be convenient for accessing Island Health’s COVID immunization services.
September clinic turnout:
In total, 224 people attended the mobile clinic set up at RRU in September, to get their COVID vaccine shot.
Held in the Dogwood Auditorium on the campus in Colwood, there was a strong turnout (number of doses delivered as provided by Island Health):
- September 8 – 47 participants from the community at large
- September 15 – 93 participants from a mix of community and students, including participants from one of the local schools
- September 22 – 84 as another mix from RRU and west shore community; this one apparently a mix of first, second and even a few third shots.
Two clinics in October:
Coming up in October, the next two clinics — open to everyone — will be held on:
- Wednesday October 6 – 10 am to 3 pm [20 participants]
- Wednesday October 20 – 10 am to 3 pm [52 participants]
Vaccine profile, pandemic to date:
As of today October 4, there have been 1,311,799 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Island Health (since the start of the pandemic), of which 48.2% have been second doses (i.e. those people are now considered fully vaccinated).
The most frequently used vaccine product in BC has been Pfizer-BioNTech, followed by Moderna, then AstraZeneca. In Island Health, doses administered up to October, by type, are Pfizer-BioNTech (70.1%), Moderna (27.3%), and AstraZeneca (2.6%).
Delta variant & more recent deaths:
The highly transmissible Delta variant is found as having caused virtually all the COVID-19 test-positive infections in BC (according to BC Centre for Disease Control data | Variants of Concern report at Oct 1, 2021).
Since late summer, this fourth wave of the COVID pandemic has been ‘redubbed’ as a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated.
There are presently 676 active cases of COVID-19 on Vancouver Island, with 37 of those people in hospital (of whom 25 are in ICU for specialized care).
Pandemic to date, there have been 70 deaths directly due to COVID in Island Health (up from a total of 48 just since September 1); in other words, almost one-third of the COVID deaths on Vancouver Island have happened within just the past month.
