B.C. COVID-19 vaccinations: Auditor general finds discrepancies, manual tracking, inaccuracies

The auditor general of B.C. has found that while overall tracking of the province’s immunization rates and access to the COVID-19 vaccines was good, there were issues in reporting and record-keeping.

His report titled “B.C.’s COVID-19 Response: Monitoring Vaccination Coverage” was published late Thursday morning and concluded: “the Ministry (of Health) had the information it needed to monitor COVID-19 vaccination rates, with some exceptions for the high-risk priority groups selected for this audit.” 

The analysis did not include scrutiny of financial or logistical issues in the vaccine rollout, solely focussing on whether the provincial government had information on vaccination rates, which “was vital to making informed decisions on B.C.’s pandemic response and recovery.”

Auditor general Michael Pickup found multiple data collection systems funneled into the provincial registry system in a timely way with regular reports for administrators, but that communities including UBC and Whistler that had “fluctuating populations” saw situations where ”vaccination coverage estimates were overstated” and that “decision-makers were aware of the discrepancy.”

There was no provincial database for vaccination rates for residents or staff in long-term care and assisted-living facilities and “manual processes were used to estimate these vaccination rates” which was also “cumbersome” and raised concerns the rates could be inaccurate, prompting Pickup's first recommendation: to ensure access to an up-to-date registry to address future public health needs.

He also found that while health-care workers were initially prioritizied for vaccines based on their exposure risk from the virus, the Ministry of Health “did not have accurate vaccination rates for this group from February to October 2021.” The ministry does have an adequate reporting process now, which was the report's second recommendation.

The Ministry of Health has accepted both recommendations and acknowledged Pickup's conclusion that “some gaps and risks (were) found.”