BC's COVID-19 vaccine supply will be extremely limited over coming weeks
Health officials in British Columbia learned over the weekend that they’ll be receiving an “extremely limited” supply of COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry addressed the issue during Monday’s COVID-19 update, stating that BC will not be receiving any vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna this week. Health officials will now be challenged with managing the little supply that they currently have.
“We received additional information about holdups to the supply of the Pfizer vaccine that we were expected to receive in the next few weeks,” Henry explained.
She added that the amount of vaccine expected throughout February has been “dramatically reduced.”
“Right now, we do not know how much, if any, vaccine we’ll be receiving the following two weeks in February.”
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As a result, health officials have temporarily changed the amount of time between when people receive the first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 42 days.
“This means we can use what little supply we have right now to finish our long-term care home immunizations and to address the outbreaks that are happening in our hospitals and our communities.”
Henry stressed that the decision is “about putting out fires before they get out of control.”
Last week, the provincial government laid out its plan for COVID-19 vaccines in every age group, calling it the “largest and most complex” immunization program in the province’s history.
The plan will see approximately 7.4 million doses of vaccine administered to every British Columbian who is eligible to receive it between April and the end of September.
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