B.C. doctors are applauding the province’s move to more frequently release data on COVID-19 cases by vaccination status.
British Columbia has been releasing that data, but only sporadically.
The latest data, published Aug. 10 and referring to a period ending July 24, showed only six per cent of cases were among fully vaccinated people.
“At this point, B.C. is behind all the other provinces,” Vancouver physician and spokesperson for This Is Our Shot Dr. Anna Wolak said of the data.
She compared the province to Ontario, which releases case and hospitalization data by vaccination status daily.
Wolak said she hopes B.C. follows that model, arguing the information will be a powerful tool to help convince people who are still on the fence about vaccines to get the shot.
“A great majority of the people in intensive care units or who are hospitalized are actually unvaccinated — it would help seeing that or hearing that on a regular basis to remind people to go and get your vaccines,” she said.
“Because at this point we’re seeing B.C. had a fantastic growth in people going out and getting vaccinated, but now we’re kind of stagnating.”
B.C.’s latest update showed 74.3 per cent of eligible people and 66.8 per cent of the province’s entire population (including ineligible children) are fully vaccinated.
As of Saturday in Ontario, eight per cent of COVID-19 patients in ICU were fully vaccinated, while 17 per cent of those in hospital were fully vaccinated.
Just under 20 per cent of active cases were fully vaccinated, though about nine per cent of cases were also of unknown immunization status.
Dr. Matthew Chow, president of Doctors of BC, echoed Wolak’s belief that regularly reporting the numbers could have a powerful effect on people who remain unconvinced about vaccination.
It also could provide an important tool against misinformation that has circulated on social media in the information vacuum created by the lack of data.
“I’ve sometimes seen online some members of the public wondering is something being hidden, is there a hidden story here? And for someone like me that hears front-line stories from people all over the province, I know they’re not hiding something, and in fact, the vaccines really do work,” he said.
“It’s very important that people realize the vaccines remain extraordinarily protective, especially around the severe outcomes we had most greatly feared, including going to the hospital, needing to be on oxygen, needing to be in intensive care, because that’s where we see the most pressure on the health-care system.”
Health Minister Adrian Dix pledged Friday that the province would begin to provide “regular” updates on case data by vaccine status starting on Monday, though did not provide more specific information on the level of detail or how frequently it will be released.
New COVID-19 cases have been surging in B.C., where the Delta variant now makes up an estimated 97 per cent of cases, driven by an outbreak in the interior where vaccinations have lagged the rest of the province.
On Friday, B.C. reported 129 people in hospital and 59 people in critical or intensive care, an increase of 50 per cent over the week prior.
With files from Kristen Robinson