As most people wait to find out when they can received the COVID-19 vaccine, one Burnaby care home is celebrating a milestone.
The New Vista Society Twitter account tweeted out about how its Burnaby care home residents were set to receive the second dose on Friday.
“Just confirmed early this morning, New Vista Care Home residents are receiving their 2nd COVID vaccination today,” reads a tweet. “We are ready - the vaccine arrived in the building minutes ago. Thank-you Fraser Health! New Vista remains COVID free.”
New Vista had a lengthy outbreak in 2020, but as the tweet says, it is currently free of COVID-19 cases. Burnaby’s George Derby Centre is only active care home outbreak in the city, with more than 100 cases and at least 36 deaths.
As for the vaccine rollout plans, British Columbians 80 and above, Indigenous seniors over the age of 65 and other hospital staff receive vaccines are supposed to receive vaccinations by the end of March. Then the province will move onto those who are 75-79 years old.
Vaccinations will then carry on in descending five-year age brackets.
Mobile clinics, in-house visits and digital records are set to play a critical role in the province’s efforts to administer doses to 4.3 million eligible British Columbians by the end of September. Those under 18 are not yet eligible but that may change as more vaccines are approved.
The current timelines are based only on the availability of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, however. Canada has secured orders with additional manufacturers that be may be granted regulatory approval in the weeks and months ahead.
Clinics will be set up beginning in March across 172 B.C. communities in partnership with municipalities, businesses and volunteers.
At peak immunization capacity, the province will be relying on 715 full-time immunizers across all five health regions as it seeks to administer about 100,000 doses per day.
Those immunizers are expected to see 140 patients a day to administer doses.
Mobile sites will also be deployed where necessary and home visits will be made possible for those unable to attend clinics.
- With additional reporting by Tyler Orton, Business in Vancouver
