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February 23, 2022 - 7:00 PM
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is taking longer to let go of its hold on the Interior Health region than in the Lower Mainland due, largely, to lower vaccination rates.
“In a number of communities in the Interior, and we’re seeing this in the North as well, there are lower rates of vaccination so the virus has much more opportunity to infect more people,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said during a news briefing today, Feb. 23.
“We’re seeing that in the numbers in the Interior and in hospitalizations and it has meant that the peak has been delayed and also going down more slowly and the proportion of people in hospital is a little bit higher but we seem to be turning the corner.”
She’s also watching the proportion of cases in the Interior that have the BA.2 Omicron variant which is even more highly contagious than regular Omicron but not necessarily any more serious.
In terms of the low vaccination rate, she encouraged everyone to get vaccinated and noted that the Novavax vaccine is now available in B.C.
It’s different than the Pfizer or Moderna MNRA vaccines in that it does not contain any human elements. It is made using moth cell lines and soap box tree extract. In that way it’s similar to other vaccines used for things like Hepatitis B and influenza so may be more acceptable to people who had concerns about the MNRA vaccines.
“Interior Health is doing lots to encourage (vaccination),” Dr. Henry said. “It’s really going back to those basics of ensuring people have the information they need to be confident in the vaccine, making sure it’s accessible and convenient for them and to get over that sense of complacency.
"I think we’ve seen that a little bit with Omicron, that there’s this narrative that it’s a mild disease. It is a mild disease in people who have that immune protection.”
For people with two doses of vaccine it has been a pretty mild illness.
“That's not for everybody,” Dr. Henry said. “We’ve seen that in people who have died and we’ve seen that it is older people, even with vaccinations, who are still more at risk. So we need to take those measures to protect them.”
She said there are some communities in the Interior Health region that had serious concerns about the MNRA vaccine.
She encouraged anyone who wants the Novavax vaccine to phone the vaccine call centre at 1-833-838-2323 and put their names on the list to reserve a dose.
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