BC’s youth now eligible for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as case counts drop

(Files by Dione Wearmouth – My Prince George Now)

BC residents aged 12-17 can now register for a COVID-19 vaccine appointment, however, only Pfizer has been approved for use in residents aged 12-17.

There will be after-school clinics available for youth to get their vaccine, however, there will be no mass clinics being hosted at schools.

Appointments are being booked for about 310,000 youth aged 12-17.

“We are expecting that the Moderna vaccine, they have been doing trials in younger people and we’re hopeful that it will be very soon approved for use in youth,” explained Dr.Bonnie Henry.

Youth will be able to get vaccinated at all available vaccine clinics but the province has been working with the BC Children’s Hospital to ensure there are youth-friendly vaccine clinics available where they can get any questions they have about the vaccine answered.

“If a parent or guardian has an appointment booked already, you can bring a youth with you and that’s one thing we’re going to be doing so that families can come together and get vaccinated at the same time,” she noted.

Any youth that joins in on an existing appointment doesn’t have to be registered or booked for an appointment, they just need to let clinic staff know.

Any person between 12-17 can either book their appointment themselves, or get a trusted adult to do so for them.

Young people can register themselves and book their appointment:

•  Online at: https://gov.bc.ca/getvaccinated
• By telephone at 1 833 838-2323
• In person at any Service BC centre

Household and group vaccination options are also available to make it easy for households to be immunized at the same time, multiple young people in a household can attend one booked appointment and be vaccinated together.

This comes as the province saw the lowest daily COVID-19 case count since February 16th, as 357 new cases were identified, 22 of which were found in Northern Health.

Northern Health’s active case count was boosted slightly and is now at 143.

Across BC, there are now 4,636 active cases while 331 people are in hospital, 113 of whom are in ICU.

Meanwhile, one more person passed away in the North, a resident in their 70’s.

Over 2.6 million doses of the available COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across BC, now over 58% of all BC residents aged 18+ have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

“We’re now at the point where we can assess the impact that our immunization plan is having in our community,” she added,” after 3 to 4 weeks or 21 to 28 days with a single dose a person’s risk in our community of transmitting Sars-Covi has been reduced by 70%.”

BREAKDOWN:

Northern Health: +22 (7,524)

Interior Health: +33 (11,282)

Fraser Health: +210 (81,134)

Vancouver Coastal Health: +80 (33,743)

Island Health: +12 (4,803)