Monday March 15, 2021 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
Health authorities in British Columbia took 24,576 appointment bookings for COVID-19 immunization today and 132,908 since last Monday, said Health Minister Adrian Dix on Twitter this evening.
Appointment bookings opened on Monday March 8 by phone in all health authorities but also online in Fraser Health.
Each health authority’s total for today (and cumulative) are:
- VIHA (Island Health) – 5,318 (25,187)
- FHA (Fraser Health) – 8,293 (47,094)
- IHA (Interior Health) – 5,394 (23,364)
- VCH (Vancouver Coastal) – 3,597 (25,142)
- NHA (North) – 1,974 (12,121)
People over age 90 could phone in last week for appointments (and Indigenous people over age 65), and this week people over 85 could do that. Starting next week people over age 80 can book their appointments for the COVID vaccine.
Presently it’s almost entirely the mRNA vaccine type (Pfizer and Moderna) that is being administered to elderly people, who are considered the most vulnerable to serious illness and death if they contract the COVID-19 viral infection.
The incoming AstraZeneca vaccine (a viral vector product) is being used in BC for containing community outbreaks and at industrial and close-contact workplaces to contain spread, as explained by Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry today.
