British Columbia will begin receiving 80,000 coronavirus vaccine doses per week by the end of February, according to a federal vaccine distribution timetable released Monday.
The distribution plan published by the Public Health Agency of Canada says the number of doses delivered to all provinces will gradually ramp up throughout January before staying relatively steady during February.
This week will see B.C. receive 28,275 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 20,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
During the week of Feb. 22, there will be a delivery of 49,725 Pfizer doses and 31,000 Moderna doses.
By the end of February, B.C. will have received over 451,000 doses of both vaccines, enough to vaccinate 225,850 British Columbians with the required two doses.
The federal government says it still anticipates that all provinces and territories will receive enough doses to vaccinate every Canadian by September.
The breakdown says as of Jan. 7, a total of 71,200 vaccine doses have already been delivered to B.C. — 50,700 from Pfizer, and 20,500 from Moderna.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Monday that 59,902 people have received their first dose as of Sunday, accounting for 84 per cent of all vaccines received. She said she expects all available doses of the Pfizer vaccine already received by the province to be used by the end of Monday.
The vaccine is currently only being provided to front-line health workers and at-risk populations like long-term care residents. Health officials have said they anticipate the vaccine will be available to the general public later this year after those priority groups are fully vaccinated.
Henry said Monday that there will not be enough vaccine supply in the province by the end of March to expand access to the general public right away. She said the expected approvals of more vaccines by March will ramp up supply, and that information about the next stage of the provincial rollout plan will likely come in April.
“Let me be clear: everyone will have their turn,” she said.
An Angus Reid poll released Monday found 61 per cent of British Columbians intend to get inoculated as soon as possible, while another 28 per cent will get the vaccine “eventually.” Only eight per cent of respondents said they do not plan on getting vaccinated at all.
The poll also suggested 51 per cent of the province thinks the B.C. government is doing a good job rolling out the vaccine.
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