The Local Weekly The heart and soul of our communities with news and information about the Sunshine Coast
We are ahead of schedule on the Coast. As of Saturday, March 20, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) has been inviting Coast residents 70 years of age and older (born in 1951 or earlier) and 55 and older, if you are First Nations, Métis, or Inuit to call 1-877-587-5767 to book their COVID-19 vaccination appointment.
There are enough appointments available, and there is no rush to call in, but call volumes are lower in the late afternoon and evening. The appointment booking toll-free phone line is open from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week. To prepare for your call, please have available a pen and paper, personal health number, full name, date of birth, postal code and phone number.
VCH is appealing to family members, friends, neighbours, and social services agencies to help reach eligible people in the community.
As of Monday, 539,408 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the province, 87,161 of which are second doses.
“The latest AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccine trials have shown high effectiveness to protect people from illness – much greater than what was originally shown,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s provincial health officer, at a press conference this week. “This is good news for all of us as we continue with our parallel vaccine approach.”
Henry went on to remind everyone to stay vigilant as the risk remains high. “COVID-19 did not go away with the time change or start of spring. While the number of people who are vaccinated has substantially increased, we do not yet have enough protection to keep all of us safe. We have seen an uptick in new cases and clusters of COVID-19 in the Lower Mainland. This is a concern for all of us because, as we have seen before, this increase can quickly escalate to other regions of our province.”
“The variants of concern are increasing, and they transmit more easily, making it increasingly difficult to stop the spread. This means we all need to be slow and steady in our efforts,” said Henry. “Let’s make spring the time to be outside and only in our small groups, taking the steps we need to keep each other and ourselves safe. Let’s push back on COVID-19, so we can continue on our path to the brighter days ahead.”
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