Northern B.C. will remain on the COVID-19 waiting list for the time being.
A rollout of the Pfizer vaccine will start Thursday at one site in each of the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health regions, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during a technical briefing with provincial media.
Priority will be given to workers in long-term care facilities, physicians, doctors and other health care providers working directly with COVID 19 patients, people living in long-term care, then "community seniors" over 80 years old, the homeless and remote, isolated indigenous communities.
Because the Pfizer vaccine must be kept at -80 C while being transported, Henry said two trays each holding 975 doses will be delivered to each of the site and that the focus will initially be on healthcare workers who are able to come to the sites. Henry said it may be impossible to deliver the Pfizer vaccine to long-term care homes "at least for the next few weeks" and may leave that to the Moderna vaccine, which can be shipped in regular freezer and remain stable for about a week at fridge temperature.
A further nine sites have been identified around the province for the first week of January but Henry did not say where they are. She said the Pfizer vaccine can be delivered to 10 sites per week with 30 sites to be identified over the longer run.
She said as many as 400,000 people in B.C. could be immunized by the end of March 2021.
"That is not enough to stop this pandemic, it's not enough to prevent transmission in our communities widely and to stop a pandemic in its tracks," Henry said and noted the total is less than 10 per cent of B.C.'s population.
She said probably 60 to 70 per cent of the population will have to be immunized before restrictions around such things as social distancing can be relaxed. But she also cautioned that it's not yet known how long protection from the virus will last, although so far the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been "very highly effective."
She said youth under 16 years old, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems will not be given the Pfizer vaccine.
As of Wednesday, the positivity rate - the percentage of positive cases from the tests conducted - stood at 10.3 per cent based on a seven-day rolling average, the highest in the province for the fifth day in a row. A rate above five per cent is a cause for concern for public health officials.
