Monday August 2, 2021 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
The Island Health Vax Van was on-site at Starlight Stadium on Friday evening, July 30, alongside the first Pacific FC home game of the 2021 season.
About 15 Island Health staff operating the Vax Van service alongside the field, where people could get a first shot without an appointment (and some people got a second shot). No one was turned away, even if there were complexities in registering (ID, public health number, etc).
About 10 shots were administered between 4 and 6 pm, and then a steady stream of more “COVID jab” recipients continued to game time. The Vax Van remained on site to 8 pm.
The scene was managed by Island Health’s Westshore Public Health Manager Kathy Easton. Nurses on site said that most of the time people’s questions had to do with side effects of the vaccine and wanting to understand the difference between Moderna and Pfizer (both utilize mRNA vaccine technology).
Island Health’s Dr Mike Benusic (Medical Health Officer for central Vancouver Island) was there for the Vax Van and the game. He told Island Social Trends that the mass immunization clinics will wrap up at some point, and that mobile and targeted opportunities for people to be vaccinated will be the next direction for getting as many people vaccinated as possible.
Dr Benusic said the Island Health immunization clinic within the Eagle Ridge Arena was closed out of additional caution for this weekend, due to the heat. Island Health explained that people who had already made appointments had their same dates/times (for July 30, July 31 and August 1 at Eagle Ridge) relocated to the Victoria Conference Centre downtown.
Drop-in Wednesday August 4 for immunization:
Across BC on Wednesday August 4 the COVID-19 mass immunization clinics will be wide-open to offering first and second dose injection of the COVID vaccines, no appointments necessary.
- Anyone 12 or older can walk-in to any mass immunization clinic to receive a first dose, without an appointment. All clinics are listed here: https://covid19.islandclinics.ca
- On Walk-in Wednesday (August 4), anyone 12 or older can walk-in to any mass immunization clinic to receive a first dose or second dose without an appointment, more details here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/covid-19/vaccine/vaxforbc#walk-in-wednesday and here: https://www.islandhealth.ca/easy-access-clinics
This is to help increase the number of people who are vaccinated against COVID-19. Two doses are considered necessary for full vaccination.
Hopefully this Walk-in Wednesday messaging reaches the group that is still catching up to vaccination, i.e. young adults in their 20s & 30s. For many in that age group this will be a word-of-mouth campaign thru others (a lot are *not* on Twitter, by choice, and also not Facebook); the active edge of the disenfranchised have built their own social networks within online streams such as Reddit and Tumblr, where the sun doesn’t shine for mainstream media.
Vaccination profile:
BC Centre for Disease Control stats show that as of Friday July 30, 2021 the percentage of people in BC (age 12+) who have received their first dose was 81.1%, and 64.9% had received their second dose.
Herd (community) immunity is generally aiming for 90% fully vaccinated during this COVID pandemic, especially given the transmissibility of the Delta variant.
Immunization clinics continued to operate through the BC Day long weekend.
Langford focus:
In Langford, the appointments that had been booked for the Eagle Ridge arena clinic location were relocated to the downtown Victoria Conference Centre evidently as a precaution during what was expected to be hot weather July 30, July 31, and August 1.
However, as the arena operators also operate the City of Langford’s Starlight Stadium, this was also easier on their workload to not be stretched too thin — the first stadium sporting event (Pacific FC home game) on July 30 no doubt took a lot of organization. As Mayor Stew Young said in his opening remarks from the field on Friday night, the arena has been operating for the last many months doing something “it was not designed to do”.
Active cases surging upward again:
This is as the number of daily cases and active cases are increasing during the economic reopening in BC (presently in Step 3, since July 1) and as return-to-campus and back-to-school loom in September.
As of July 30, there were 1,231 active COVID cases in BC (that count went up all week, from 695 active cases on July 26 which jumped to 909 in the July 28 BC CDC stats report).
In Island Health the active cases of COVID were 65 at July 30, up from 32 at the start of last week.
The positivity rate is back up again, to 1.6 at the end of last week. Province-wide it up to 2.3. This indicates a return to exponential growth of viral transmission.
More new cases were expected:
Both Dr Henry and Island Health’s top doctor Dr Richard Stanwick have said that new case increases were expected as social and economic activity open up.
Last week Dr Henry had to do the equivalent of a ‘surgical strike’ in the Central Okanagan area of Interior Health to clamp down on surging increases in that summer tourism area where cases are skyrocketing among young adults in their 20s and 30s; not only are masks mandatory again and physical distancing required but interval between first and second doses has been decreased down to eight weeks as a way to get the vaccination percentages up.
Vaccination profile:
People in their 20s and 30s are the least represented in vaccination stats. But they are catching up, said Health Minister Adrian Dix last week, in response to a media question from Island Social Trends.
In that same media session, Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry defended her age-based approach (eldest people first, in descending order by age) which essentially left working-age young adults to last. Even youth age 12 to 17 years were launched into the queue (who could just show up with an adult, without an appointment) ahead of 30-somethings.
Children under the age of 12 are not yet vaccinated in BC or anywhere across Canada; Health Canada is awaiting trial results of vaccine products as being done in children. Health Canada has so far approved Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZenca and Janssen vaccine products for use in Canada.
COVID spread — when asymptomatic & vaccinated:
Anyone of any age can be infected by the SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19) virus, and transmit it to others even they are asymptomatic and even if they are fully vaccinated.
Locally, the Sooke Teachers Association (STA) whose teachers work in the Sooke School District 62 (SD62) with schools in Langford, Colwood and Sooke, is reminding their membership to get vaccinated before the start of the 2021-2021 school year which starts September 7.
===== LINKS (articles by Island Social Trends):
Vax Van did their thing at the Pacific FC home game (July 31, 2021)
Vax Van heading to the Pacific FC home game on July 30 (July 29, 2021)
Lack of air conditioning: Island Health temporarily relocates July 30 Eagle Ridge COVID-19 immunization appointments (July 29, 2021)
Vancouver Island vaccination count reaches 1 million (July 18, 2021)
BC & Island Health vaccination profile at July 2 (July 2)
