Starting Monday, British Columbians who want to access a variety of non-essential services will need to show their official BC Vaccine Card.
When the province’s vaccine passport system took effect on Sept. 13, the province gave people a two-week grace period to download their vaccine card.
Up until Sunday, people could still show several alternative proofs of immunization, including the paper record of immunization they got when they received their COVID-19 immunization.
From Monday onward, only the official version of the BC Vaccine Card, which includes a QR code, will be accepted for B.C. residents.
Visitors from out-of-province can show their provincially-recognized vaccine record, and visitors from out of the country can show the proof of immunization they used to enter Canada.
As of Saturday, the Ministry of Health said 3.1 million people had downloaded their vaccine passport. More than 4.05 million British Columbians have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
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Residents who haven’t yet downloaded the official card can do so here.
The province’s proof of immunization program applies to bars and restaurants, indoor sporting events, movie theatres and indoor performances, along with a number of other environments.
Currently, people must have received at least one dose of vaccine, but by Oct. 24 they will need to have two doses.
As of Friday, B.C. health officials said people who are not fully vaccinated made up 82 per cent of COVID-19 cases in hospital and 94 per cent of cases in intensive care.
According to the province, people not vaccinated are 25.9 times more likely to be hospitalized than those fully vaccinated after factoring for age.
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