B.C. accelerating its COVID-19 booster-dose program amid Omicron surge

B.C.'s COVID-19 booster dose program will be accelerated amid the province's ongoing surge in cases, health officials announced in their last pandemic briefing of 2021.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Dr. Penny Ballem gave the update Friday morning, the day after B.C. shattered another COVID-19 case-count record.

"With rapid increasing in numbers we're facing challenges," Henry said.

"With the rise of Omicron and the need to try and protect as many workers as possible, we're also moving up the (booster) timing to six months."

Previously, people would be contacted for their booster six to eight months after their second dose. At the start of the booster-dose program, the province had prioritized people who were more clinically vulnerable and seniors. To date, people over the age of 60 who have waited at least six months since their second dose should have received an invitation to get their booster.

Henry also announced Friday people who are pregnant are immediately eligible to get their booster dose as soon as six months has passed since their second dose, regardless of their age. 

Ballem, who leads the province's vaccine program, said appointment capacity will be expanded in the coming weeks, in the hope the booster dose program will "come to an even sooner conclusion."

"Now that our vulnerable and seniors are protected, we're moving to an interval-based invitation process," Ballem said, adding that Omicron "has really changed the needs across the province."

"People getting to six months regardless of their age 18 and 59 will be getting an invite as close as we can to that date."

BACKLOG OF 800,000 PEOPLE

As a result of this adjustment, hundreds of thousands of British Columbians are suddenly eligible to get their third shot.

"At this point we have a backlog of people under the age of 60 who are over six months," Ballem said, explaining that the approximate 800,000 people in that backlog may be "a few days to a couple of weeks" beyond their six-month interval.

Ballem said the province's priority is to address that backlog first and to send out invitations to them first, though it will take some time for that to happen.

Part of the reason for the change in strategy is because, early in the vaccine rollout, health-care workers and other front-line workers were prioritized to get their first and second doses. Those workers, however, span many age groups.

"They constitute a large part of the group that are now overdue for their six-month booster," Ballem said.

BOOSTING CAPACITY

Ballem said the rollout of invitations will also depend on capacity, which health authorities have been working to build up.

Part of the plan is to bring back mass clinics like the ones that ran out of convention centres and sports arenas earlier in the vaccine rollout. Ballem also said more pharmacies are ramping up their capacity and more immunizers are being hired.

With capacity constantly increasing, Ballem said those waiting weeks for an appointment they've already booked can log back on to the provincial system to look for an earlier appoint. People can also look for appointments further from home, if they'd like.

"Wait for your invite," Ballem said. "It's going to come."