B.C.’s teachers, police officers, grocery store employees and other front-line workers are breathing a huge sigh of relief Thursday after their place in the COVID-19 vaccine queue was changed.
More than 300,000 front-line workers, including first responders, grocery store employees, teachers and child-care workers will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations in April, B.C. Premier John Horgan announced.
“The last year has been incredibly stressful on everyone in the school system,” BCTF president Teri Mooring said in a statement.
“Like all British Columbians, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought stress, anxiety, and even grief to our personal and professional lives. I join all of my teacher colleagues in expressing huge relief that educators across BC will be prioritized in April to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.”
The entire first priority groups include first responders (police, firefighters, emergency transport), K-12 educational staff, child-care staff, grocery store workers, postal workers, bylaw and quarantine officers, manufacturing workers, wholesale/warehousing employees, cross-border transport workers, corrections workers and staff living in congregate housing at places such as ski hills.
These workers will be receiving the AstraZeneca/SII CoviShield vaccine.
The B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police said its workers faced unprecedented challenges during the pandemic as operations did not change significantly and crime in B.C. did not stop.
“Police officers in the field are unable to eliminate the risk of exposure because they cannot always practice physical distancing due to the nature of their work,” BCACP president Deputy Chief Const. Howard Chow said in a statement. “We are grateful for the opportunity to protect our officers who will continue to focus on the important task at hand, which is to protect B.C. communities.”
One of the groups not included in this change was the transit workers.
“We are disappointed transit workers—with their high level of interaction with the public in difficult environments—were not on the Public Health Office’s newest list,” Gavin McGarrigle, western regional director of Unifor, told Global News.
“However, we understand more doses may be coming in the next few weeks, which will allow transit workers to be put on the priority list.”
UFCW Local 1518, which represents grocery store workers in the province, said this change is something they have been advocating for since January.
“Our members in grocery stores are working in spaces that have a higher rate of exposures, so having early access to the vaccine not only helps to protect them at work but also their families and the thousands of people of the public that they interact with in stores every month,” president Kim Novak said in a release.
The province will use a combination of community pharmacists, existing immunization clinics and mobile clinics at some worksites to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to front-line workers.
The groups included in this new vaccine timeline change can expect to hear more details over the next few days, according to the BCTF.
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