– The booking of second doses for age-based and clinically extremely vulnerable programs are being moved up to eight weeks
– Plan for resuming non-urgent scheduled surgeries in nine Lower Mainland hospitals
PROVINCIAL Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix on Thursday reported 378 new COVID-19 cases, for a total of 143,264 cases in British Columbia.
There have been seven new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 1,690 deaths in the province.
There are 3,543 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and a further 137,929 people who tested positive have recovered.
Of the active cases, 286 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 88 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.
There have been 98 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 189 new cases in the Fraser Health region, nine in the Island Health region, 68 in the Interior Health region, 14 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
Henry and Dix said: “3,032,811 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 155,730 of which are second doses. This means 65.8% of all adults and 62% of those 12 and older have now received their first dose.
“As part of BC’s Restart plan, today an updated provincial health officer’s order variance for religious services will be posted, allowing for up to 50 people at indoor religious services, with detailed COVID-19 safety plans in place.
“Currently, all of the approved vaccines in use in B.C. require a second booster dose to maximize protection for the maximum amount of time. Age continues to be the biggest risk factor and we will be continuing with our age-based approach.
“With the large number of Dose 1 immunizations in our province, we are advancing second-dose booster vaccines. We are moving up the booking of second doses for our age-based and clinically extremely vulnerable programs to eight weeks.
“If you are not yet registered, we strongly encourage you to do so today, in which case, you will be notified by email or text for your second dose as soon as your age group comes up.
“For those people with medical conditions that make you clinically extremely vulnerable, you will receive an invitation to book your Dose 2 appointment in the next few days.
“For the people who received an AstraZeneca vaccine, we are currently working through the operational and logistical details for second doses, and are waiting for the full results of the U.K. study. We will have more information to share on AstraZeneca second doses later next week, and assure you that there will be enough AstraZeneca vaccine for everyone who wants it.
“Since the surgical renewal commitment made last year, we have delivered surgeries to 97% of the 15,154 patients whose surgeries were postponed during the first wave of COVID-19 and still wanted to pursue a surgical treatment. Due to pressure on our hospitals and health-care teams earlier this year, nine Lower Mainland hospitals postponed all non-urgent scheduled surgeries on April 26, 2021. As of May 23, surgeries were postponed for 2,153 patients.
“Today, we presented the plan for resuming non-urgent scheduled surgeries in those nine hospitals. Burnaby Hospital was back to full operations on May 25. By Monday, June 7, all nine hospitals – Burnaby, Royal Columbian, Abbotsford Regional and Surrey Memorial in Fraser Health, and St. Paul’s, Lions Gate, Richmond, UBC and Vancouver General hospitals in Vancouver Coastal Health – will be fully online delivering the postponed surgeries.
“In April of this year, we made a commitment to patients whose surgeries were postponed that they were not forgotten. Today, we can say to these patients that we will soon be calling you again – this time to re-book your surgery.
“COVID-19 immunizations are the foundation of our restart plan. Vaccines provide protection to you and everyone around you. We have the momentum, so let’s keep going. Together, we will restart B.C. and put COVID-19 behind us.”
Learn More:
Surgical renewal:
For the PowerPoint for the Surgical Renewal update, visit:
http://news.gov.bc.ca/files/
Vaccination
Register for your vaccine now:Â https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/
