Prince George residents 55 years old and older can register to get a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, as of Monday.
Northern Health opened registration to those born in 1966 or earlier on Monday, and registration is available to all Indigenous adults. To register, go online to getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca anytime, or call 1-833-838-2323 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week.
In addition to the Northern Health vaccination campaign, using the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the AstraZeneca vaccine was available for those aged 55 to 65 at eight local pharmacies as of Monday. For pharmacy locations and information on how to book an appointment, go online to www.bcpharmacy.ca/resource-centre/covid-19/vaccination-locations.
"While the AstraZeneca vaccine is on pause for people under 55, it is a safe and effective vaccine," Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Monday. "So far we are seeing all of the vaccines we have are working well, including against the variants of concern."
The Northern Health region is ahead of much of the rest of the province, Health Minister Adrian Dix said, where registration is open to those 60 and up. In many smaller communities in the region – including Valemount, McBride and Mackenzie – everyone 18 years old and older can register for their vaccination appointment.
"Some places are ahead of others, particularly in the north," Dix said. "Everybody aged 55 and above should register."
Registration will open for those aged 50+ on Wednesday; to those 45+ on Friday; and to those 40+ on Monday (April 19).
Registering online takes approximately two minutes. To regisiter, you will need your personal health number, postal code, name, date of birth and an email address or a phone number that can receive text messages.
THIRD WAVE
The province is seeing a "third wave" of cases driven by more-infectious COVID-19 variants, especially in the Lower Mainland, Henry said.
"We are at approximately 50 per cent of cases that now are variants of concern," she said.
Of the variants of concern, the B117 variant from the United Kingdom is the dominant one in the province, she said. However, due to some provincial data management issues she couldn't provide the latest numbers.
Henry urged residents to stay within their family group as much as possible, and not to travel outside your local community unless absolutely necessary.
"We want to minimize societal disruption. We've been able to keep most businesses open – so far," she said. "It is our collective efforts that have made the difference so far."
The province had 3,289 new cases of COVID-19 since Friday – including 125 in the Northern Health region, she said.
The number of active cases in the north grew from 333 to 353 on Monday. However, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 dropped from 34 to 27, including 13 in intensive care, according to data reported by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
Across B.C., there were 18 new COVID-related deaths in the province, including one in the Northern Health region. Since the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 has claimed 1,513 lives in B.C. – including 130 in the north.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 6,567 cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region, of which 6,076 people have recovered, according to B.C. CDC data.
The province and Northern Health regions hit vaccination milestones over the weekend. More than one million British Columbians have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The Northern Health region crossed the 50,000 mark, with 53,763 having had a first does and 2,834 having had a second as well.
A total of 1,112,101 doses of COVID vaccine have been administered in the province.
"Almost 24 per cent of all eligible adults (have been vaccinated)," Dix said. "(But) there is no shortcut to get where we need to be."
