Monday December 20, 2021 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc. | Island Social Trends
As the number of Omicron cases rises rapidly in BC, the profile in Vancouver Island is a significant chunk of that. It has yet to be seen at what point the Omicron variant overtakes the Delta variant (as BC determines through whole genome sequencing). Just before Omicron hit this month, virtually 100% of tested cases were Delta.
An initial cluster and outbreak of Omicron among contacts of rugby players who had participated in a varsity tournament in Kingston Ontario last month (November 28) has been the main source of the Island’s higher case count.
Next PHO update Dec 21:
Tomorrow (Tuesday December 21) a COVID update is scheduled for presentation by Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry, at 1:30 pm on the usual government livestreams.
It was only last week that stricter public health orders were announced. This is yet another set coming into play before Christmas. A tech session for media at 12 noon (ahead of the public announcement) indicates a lot of detail and likely some significant changes.
Generally speaking, it’s the proven basic tools of public health that have proven to work through each of the waves of the pandemic to date: physical distancing (including small gatherings), wearing a mask, frequent hand washing, and staying home if feeling ill.
BC also has the BC Vaccine Card which allows for some assurance of people’s vaccination status.
Rapid testing is not yet consistency available in BC.
Vaccination:
Vaccinations are the work of modern science coming to the rescue (particularly the mRNA type which has a strong offering of protection against infection, severe illness, hospitalization and eath), but they are not the whole answer. Breakthrough infections are now being seen even in people who’ve received two doses of the vaccine; hence the move forward with a booster dose program that will pick up steam in January.
Vaccination appears to reduce severity of illness, which makes it possible for society and economy to keep functioning despite this fifth wave of the pandemic as we head into the Christmas and year-end break.
Second COVID Christmas:
This is the second Christmas season during the COVID pandemic. Vaccination is the bonus in all this, as last Christmas the COVID vaccines were only just starting to be available mid-December 2020.
COVID cases were first detected in Wuhan China in December 2019. By January 2020 cases were already seen in Europe and in Canada. The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020. In BC, the COVID health emergency was declared on March 17, 2020 and BC went into a State of Emergency on March 18, 2020.
Tomorrow’s COVID update by Dr Henry will also include remarks by Deputy-Premier Mike Farnworth, who is the one who announces State of Emergency orders and extension. BC is presently in a State of Emergency (which presently runs to December 28) regarding the flooding emergency from mid-November.
Vancouver Island COVID profile:
As of today Monday December 20, here are some of the basic COVID details for Vancouver Island (in Island Health).
Total cases, pandemic-to-date in Island Health: 14,767. Of those, 1,021 are active (415 of those new over the past 72 hours). That’s almost double the number of active cases (624) seen two weeks ago on Monday December 6.
Currently 37 people are hospitalized with COVID (14 in ICU), which is actually the same as two weeks ago (but on Dec 6 there were nine people in ICU). Total hospitalizations in Island Health to date during the pandemic tallies at 727.
The positivity rate in Island Health is quite high at 7.6 percent, compared to a still-high percentage of 5.0 province-wide.
There have been 136 deaths in Island Health due to COVID, including one new today. There have been 12 deaths in the past two weeks (since December 6).
Immunization:
BC Health is rolling out their immunization program as rapidly as possible, given the constraints of personnel availability of over the holiday season, waiting for the ‘bulge’ of population that comes up to six-months since their second dose (that happens in January and February 2022). Health Minister Adrian Dix has said a few times that supply of vaccine seems not to be an issue; federal procurement and delivery has been proficient.
In Island Health, so far 1,535,657 doses of COVID vaccine have been administered. Of those, 678,230 have been second doses. The largest number of immunization shots have been with the mRNA-type vaccines (957,773 Pfizer-BioNTech and 523,255 Moderna).
The pediatric Pfizer vaccine (for children ages 5 to 11 years) began being administered on December 4 in BC. So far in Island Health 17,225 doses have been administered.
In total 87.3% of people age 5+ have received a first-dose of COVID vaccine in BC, with 82.6% having received a second dose, and 17% a third dose. It appears that three doses may be the required ‘fully vaccinated’ standard, as the waves of the pandemic continue.
===== RELATED:
Island Social Trends COVID Archive (pandemic to date)
Strong BC vaccination effort for kids age 5 to 11 (December 17, 2021)