FILE PHOTO - B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Province of B.C.
November 05, 2021 - 8:30 AM
In the week after being put on unpaid leave for not being vaccinated, 30% of Interior Health workers got their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccination.
On Oct. 26, the province put 4,090 employees who had worked at least one day in the last three months as health-care workers on unpaid leave for not being vaccinated. They were ordered by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry to have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by that date.
Since then, 999 got their first dose, including 410 in the Interior Health region, Health Minister Adrian Dix said during a news briefing yesterday, Nov. 4.
Vancouver Coastal had the highest conversion rate at 49% which was 254 workers.
“What it says is, this order is necessary and important and has made our health-care system safer for everybody," Dix said.
READ MORE: It's now up to employers to push vaccine rates up in Interior Health: health official
Interior Health had the highest unvaccinated rate of any health region and the highest number of unvaccinated individuals at 1,369.
Since they were forced onto unpaid leaves, 29% of unvaccinated workers on Vancouver Island got the jab, 19% in Northern Health and 11% in Fraser Health.
Dr. Henry, during the same news briefing, said health authorities are meeting one-on-one with those who have not been vaccinated.
“There is a very small group of people who are really anti-vaccination,” she said, pointing out that some people still don’t know where to go to get vaccinated and, particularly in some small communities or remote areas, vaccines are not always available.
READ MORE: Prominent anti-vax protester expected at Kamloops demonstration today
The number of health-care workers cited do not include people working in long-term care or assisted living facilities. They were ordered to be vaccinated by Oct. 12.
On Aug. 12, when that order was announced, 90.1% (45,357) of workers in those facilities had one dose. By Nov. 3, 3,241 more people had one dose, or 96.5% of that workforce.
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