Onevch COVID-19 Bulletin

oneVCH COVID-19 Bulletin

March 15, 2021

COVID-19 VACCINATION Phase 2 vaccination clinics opened today in Vancouver

Today, the first vaccination clinics opened this morning in Vancouver to the first group of seniors 90 years of age and older, as well as Indigenous people 65 years and older and Elders.

On behalf of Regional EOC, we wanted to share a very big THANK YOU to all of our staff, medical staff and volunteers for the many hours of preparation to get our first Phase 2 COVID-19 vaccine clinics up and running this morning. It was really wonderful to open the day with a welcome ceremony from our three First Nations partners – Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh – at Creekside Community Centre in Vancouver. We also welcomed seniors to ASK Friendship Centre and the Vancouver Community College clinics this morning.

A lot of work went into preparing for today’s Phase 2 opening, and we’re incredibly grateful for your continuous support. We couldn’t be more proud as we opened the door to the public today to vaccinate our most at-risk as part of this next phase.

Please continue to reach out to family members, friends and neighbours to inform seniors in our community that it is soon their turn to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and how they can book an appointment. More information is available on www.vch.ca.

COVID-19 VACCINATION PROGRAM What's coming up next ...

Immunization clinics in rural areas now open for eligible direct care health professionals

If your profession was identified as one of our next priority groups for immunization last week, and you provide direct care in acute and community health-care settings, you can expect to see communication from your profession’s regulatory body or college soon for information about booking an appointment for your COVID-19 vaccination. We are happy to share we were able to add clinics in the Sea-to-Sky region as well as on the Sunshine Coast for health-care professionals in the more rural areas of the Vancouver Coastal Health region.

How to know when a COVID-19 vaccination call is a scam

There have been reports of scam phone calls regarding COVID-19 vaccinations in B.C. These callers are asking people to share their credit card information in order to book their appointment. VCH staff are reaching out directly to some community members to help them book their appointments, but will never ask for this information or your social insurance number to do so. People calling in to the public call centre or receiving a call from VCH can expect to share their name, personal health number, phone number and address to identify the clinic closest to them. If you receive a scam phone call, please hang up immediately.

AstraZeneca/SII (AZ/SII) vaccine arrives in B.C.

In a statement earlier today, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, announced that the first doses of AstraZeneca/SII (AZ/SII) have arrived in B.C. This vaccine is being allocated to protect workers in industries where full use of personal protective equipment and barriers can be challenging; outbreaks and clusters have occurred or are ongoing; and workers live or work in congregate settings. By deploying AZ/SII in this way, we will be able to break chains of COVID-19 transmission in communities and reduce outbreaks in certain high-risk work sites where maintaining proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and having barriers is more difficult, and where workers are staying in congregate living accommodations. Immunizing these populations in a parallel track to immunizing older individuals will help protect more people sooner.

Seniors age 85 and older now invited to book vaccine appointments. Read more →

Important reminder

COVID-19 Vaccines Important reminder: Provincial Health Officer (PHO) orders and Public Health guidelines, including strict adherence to personal protective equipment use, remain in place for everyone, even if you have received the vaccine.

For the most up-to-date information on the vaccination rollout, please visit our VCH intranet site.

Vaccination program updates and more →

Question of the day

Q: I’ve heard that the AstraZeneca vaccine can cause blood clots. Is this true?

A: Serious side effects as a direct result of vaccination are extremely rare. Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, said today there are many factors that might cause someone to have a blood clot, and the Province is monitoring data worldwide as well as here in Canada to see if any adverse reactions are caused by any of the vaccines approved for use. Of more than 17 million doses of AstraZeneca received by people around the world, 37 cases of blood clots have been identified, which translates to 0.000218 per cent. Dr. Henry said that any risk associated with contracting COVID-19 far outweighs any theoretical risk with the vaccines, and that the vaccines offered in Canada are safe and effective.

Questions? Check out our COVID-19 vaccine page for FAQs →

Vaccines available in Canada Four COVID-19 vaccines – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) – have now been authorized for use in Canada. Information about how vaccines work, which vaccines are available and the approval process is available through the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

Find out more about the COVID-19 vaccines →

UPDATE ON NEW AND EXISTING COVID-19 CASES (as of March 15, 2021)

From March 12 to 13, there were 555 new cases of COVID-19. From March 13 to 14, there were 491 new cases, and in the last 24 hours, we had a further 460 new cases, for a total of 88,373 cases in B.C. Active: 9,359 Vancouver Coastal Health: 382 new cases Fraser: 840 new cases Island Health: 75 new cases Interior Health: 80 new cases Northern Health: 129 new cases People who normally reside outside of Canada: 0 cases 163 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern for B.C. for a total of 880 cases. 269 hospitalized 76 currently admitted to ICU 81,890 people have recovered 10 new deaths in the last three days for a total of 1,407 confirmed deaths To date, 409,103 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 87,059 of which are second doses.

Click here to see more updates on the BC COVID-19 Dashboard

COVID-19 DATA Long-term care, assisted living and independent living sites COVID-19 data is available on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) website, including outbreak and case information. The February 25, 2021 weekly COVID-19 long-term care outbreak report is also available on the website.

The website also includes situation reports, maps of cases in the province and more.

Click here to go to the BCCDC site →

KEY LINKS

Text Alerts: Physician sign up keyword: COVID19

Text Alerts: Staff sign up keyword: ALERT

Staff supports during COVID-19

Medical staff resources during COVID-19

REMINDER ABOUT MEDIA If you receive a media inquiry, please contact our Public Affairs team immediately for support. Our media line is 604-202-2012 or email [email protected].

COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS? Please click here to submit questions or comments on our VCH COVID-19 intranet page.

KEY LINKS

BC COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool Wellness Together Canada: Mental Health and Substance Use Support COVID-19 Multilingual Resources Coping with COVID: Additional Employee Wellness/EFAP services VCH Virtual Health website Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) website: Staff resources on how to assess, test and treat patients and protect patients and staff. Infection Prevention and Control Policy: Ministry of Health VCH Regional Pandemic Outbreak Response Plan: VCH Communicable Disease Control website VCH Intranet: COVID-19 updates

REGIONAL AND LOCAL EOC ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

COVID-19 VCH-PHC Regional EOC COVID-19 Vancouver Acute EOC COVID-19 Vancouver Community EOC COVID-19 Coastal EOC COVID-19 Richmond EOC COVID-19 Providence Health Care (PHC) EOC

The bulletins are distributed on Mondays and Thursdays. Past bulletins are available on the COVID-19 section of our VCH staff intranet.