VANCOUVER -- Health officials have expanded their immunization program targeting high-transmission areas to include 17 additional neighbourhoods across B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
There are now dozens of neighbourhoods in the region where anyone age 30 and up is currently eligible for a vaccine. Residents can enter their postal code into the government's website to check their eligibility, then register so they can book an appointment.
Eight of the neighbourhoods are located in Vancouver: Cedar Cottage, Grandview-Woodland, Hastings-Sunrise, Kensington, Killarney, Renfrew-Collingwood, Sunset and Victoria-Fraserview.
Vancouver Coastal Health said it will be opening a new COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Killarney Community Centre that will offer shots by appointment only. The clinic will be open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on May 8 to 14, 17 to 21, and 25 to 28.
"Following registration, residents will be notified by phone, email or text message as soon as they are eligible to book a vaccine appointment," the health authority said in a news release.
Outside of Vancouver, Fraser Health announced nine more neighbourhoods that are being targeted for vaccination: Guildford and Cloverdale in Surrey, Willoughby in Langley, Southeast and Southwest Burnaby, South Mission, and Central, East and Rural Abbotsford.
Those are in addition to the 10 previously announced high-transmission neighbourhoods.
The health authority said anyone born in 1991 or earlier is eligible for a vaccine in all 19 of the designated high-risk areas.
"Eligible people who live in these neighborhoods can register now on the Get Vaccinated website and will be immediately contacted to book their vaccine. Please do not delay booking your appointment," Fraser Health said in a news release.
On top of the neighbourhood-targeted vaccinations, the government is continuing to administer shots to priority groups and at outbreak locations. The province's age-based immunization program is also ongoing, with anyone 49 and up now eligible to book an appointment.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix revealed Thursday that everyone 40 and up will be eligible as of May 11 at 7 p.m.
So far, the province has administered 1,995,496 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. That includes 1,899,628 first doses, enough to protect about 37 per cent of the provincial population.
