BC expecting surge of COVID-19 infections in fall, winter months

With the summer season ending, BC’s provincial health officer says she is concerned for the colder months ahead because it could mean another surge of COVID-19 infections. 

On Tuesday, when the province announced its update on BC’s fall COVID-19 vaccination plan, Dr. Bonnie Henry emphasized the importance of getting your first shot or next booster because “we’re expecting to see a surge of COVID in the November-December timeframe.”

She said the respiratory illness season is fast approaching, so vaccines are British Columbians’ best way to get protected. 

“[It is] very likely we’re going to see influenza this year. We haven’t seen influenza in the last couple of years. But people are travelling more; we’re doing work together,” she explained. “So what we’re planning for and what we need to think about is how do we best protect people from influenza [and] COVID at a time where they both might be circulating.”

Henry said she is also concerned about other respiratory illnesses like respiratory syncytial (RSV), which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms.

She added that she believes the province is emerging from the pandemic, but it’s clear that COVID-19 will be around for the long term. 

And for the next few months, “we still have a very uncertain trajectory of the pandemic.”

“There is still significant spread around the world, and the public health impact of the emergence of potentially another variant of concern is still one of the uncertainties that we have to live with right now,” she said. “We are not yet at a point where we can let our guard down, both here and globally.”

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Henry said she credits vaccines for why broad imposed measures are not currently set in the province.

And she made it clear Tuesday that the province will not reintroduce public health measures unless it’s the “last resort.”

“Doing a mandate, making it a legal requirement for people across the board to do something, is actually a very last resort tool that we use very judiciously in public health. So I don’t see us getting there unless we have the emergence of something very new and different, where we have that susceptibility again.”

The province has said Moderna’s Omicron-targeting bivalent vaccine will be administered to adults over 18 years old and teens aged 12 to 17 who are deemed high risk (immunosuppressed, chronically ill, or have other vulnerabilities). This group can expect to receive their invites for their fall booster shot this week.

Regular COVID-19 vaccines will be used to immunize youth 12 to 17 years old who have no risk factors.

Children five to 11 years old will receive the Pfizer Pediatric vaccine.

If you want to wait until early October, you could receive both your COVID booster and your flu shot at the same time.  

You will receive your invite by text or email.