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People most vulnerable to getting hospitalized with COVID are starting to get a fourth vaccine shot in B.C., health officials said in a news briefing today, April 5.

That includes a second booster for seniors in long term care, people over the age of 70 in the community, Indigenous people over the age of 55 and those who are extremely clinically vulnerable. The vaccine program has already started for some.

The vaccines give better protection against serious symptoms, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told reporters.

With the Omicron variant, younger people tend not to get as ill with COVID so there are no plans, at this time, to include them in this second booster program.

People will be sent invitations to make appointments for a fourth shot six months after having received their third shot.

As promised, the B.C. Vaccine Card will no longer be required as of 12:01 a.m. Friday, April 8.

At the same time, businesses can transition from COVID-19 safety plans to communicable disease plans and people living in post-secondary residences will no longer need to be vaccinated.

This comes at a time when transmission rates for COVID has been dropping, although it has been levelling off and the rates will likely rise.

It’s expected there will be a slow increase in hospitalizations over the next month, to the middle or end of May, then a potential decrease. This is due both to the more transmissible BA.2 subvariant as well as more contacts in the community.

The BA.2 subvariant of Omicron now makes up 70 to 75% of cases in B.C. It is 20% to 30% more infectious than earlier versions.

BA.2 doesn’t seem to cause more severe illness than other versions of the disease and doesn’t seem any more likely to cause infections in those who are vaccinated.

While the number of people in hospital with COVID has gone up a bit, that’s mostly because people are in hospital for other reasons and test positive once in hospital. Only about half of those in hospital with COVID are there because of COVID.

The intensive care levels have stayed low and relatively stable.

Those over the age 80 remain at the highest risk of hospitalizations, severe illness and death. Younger people, and even those in the 60-69 age group, have a low risk of hospitalization.

Those who are not vaccinated are also more likely to get infected.

People are still advised to take precautions against COVID by getting vaccinated (only 59% of those over the age of 18 have received booster doses), check for symptoms and stay home if sick, wash hands frequently and wear masks if they choose.

As of Thursday, the province will only give weekly updates on COVID case counts, hospitalizations and other data.

It will also be changing the way it reports on COVID deaths.

Now, all deaths are checked manually. Going forward the system will automatically report as a COVID death anyone who dies within 30 days of having a positive COVID test result.

That will overreport the number of COVID deaths.

But the Department of Vital Statistics, when it reviews causes of deaths, will remove those who did not die from COVID. That process can take several weeks or months for each individual.

It’s estimated that 50% of British Columbians have contracted COVID, even though they may not have had symptoms.

Health care professionals will still need to be vaccinated. The province is currently cataloguing the vaccine status of “regulated” health care workers (such as dentists).

Initially the province will just release numbers of each profession who are vaccinated. Later, people will be able to decide whether they choose to use that individual or not.

That may be through a central registry or the province may require them to notify the patient of their vaccination status when appointments are booked.

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