British Columbia has now offered at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to all residents and staff of long-term care and assisted-living facilities in the province.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry made the announcement at a Friday briefing, in which she reported 514 new cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths.
Henry said uptake on the vaccine had been “very high.”
Earlier Friday, Moderna announced it was joining Pfizer in reducing the supply of vaccine that would be shipped to Canada, due to an issue at one of its processing plants.
Henry said that would translate to about a 20 per cent drop in B.C.’s expected shipment next week.
“Of course, this is disappointing for all of us,” she said.
“We are working with what we have available to best address those most at risk and those hotspots and outbreaks that are happening around the province.”
One of the province’s most troubling outbreaks in a long-term care home, at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Place, was declared over.
You can see a breakdown of cases and deaths in long-term care, which is updated weekly, here.
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The number of active cases in B.C. had climbed to 4,557, Henry said.
Of the new cases, 134 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 223 were in the Fraser Health region, 29 were in the Island Health region, 71 were in the Interior Health region and 57 were in the Northern Health region.
More than 7,000 people were isolating due to exposure.
There were 292 people in hospital — 74 of them in critical or intensive care.
About 89 per cent of the province’s 66,779 cases have recovered, while 1,189 people have died.
Earlier Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new measures for non-essential travellers returning to Canada, including mandatory PCR testing and mandatory hotel quarantine measures.
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