Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK
April 30, 2021 - 3:18 PM
One day after provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the supply of AstraZeneca vaccine in B.C. had dried up with no new shipments in sight, the Interior Health region’s top doctor delivered quite a different message.
Canada is negotiating to get more doses of the vaccine but it’s unclear when or if they will get enough to do more than just give second doses, at least in the short term.
“We just received AstraZeneca specifically in Interior Health that is going to go out to pharmacies,” Interior Health’s chief medical health officer Dr. Albert de Villiers said in a press briefing today, April 30, after saying that pharmacies in more Interior cities, in the Kootenays, will now be able to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said he had not heard Dr. Henry’s comments yesterday about the lack of supply and could not say how many doses are available in the region.
“I’m not exactly sure how many vaccines are coming in because they’re going straight to the pharmacies,” Dr. de Villiers said. “If you’re on a pharmacy waitlist, please connect with them and then you can get in as soon as possible.”
Health Minister Adrian Dix, in the press briefing yesterday, said 180,000 doses of AstraZeneca had been administered but there were fewer than 10,000 doses left in the province.
Dr. de Villiers also said that everyone over 30 now qualifies for the AstraZeneca vaccine and should contact their pharmacies directly but to keep their registration on the provincial system as well, if they have it.
Eventually the two systems will work more closely together, he said.
Dr. Henry, on the other hand, urged everyone to register on the provincial system so the type of vaccine, lot numbers and date for a second injection can be administered better for every B.C. resident.
She also said that the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine will be arriving in B.C. next week, which will help speed up the vaccination process.
READ MORE: All front line workers in B.C. should be vaccinated by mid-May
The B.C. Get Vaccinated website is here.
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