Onevch COVID-19 Bulletin

oneVCH COVID-19 Bulletin

March 8, 2021

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY - MARCH 8

It's International Women's Day, and we're highlighting just a few of the thousands of incredible women who help us deliver exceptional care at Vancouver Coastal Health. Read about them on the oneVCH intranet and the Medical Staff website, and see more photos on our VCH Instagram and Facebook.

This year's theme and pose for International Women's Day is Choose to Challenge. Posing with a hand held high shows commitment to choose to challenge inequality, call out bias, question stereotypes and help forge an inclusive world.

#IWD2021 #ChooseToChallenge

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

Immunization clinics now open for clinical office staff in acute and community settings that serve patients or clients

Today we were able to further expand vaccination eligibility and invite more priority groups to immunization clinics. Appointments are now available for health authority staff and medical staff who work in acute and community settings that serve patients or clients, including clinical office staff such as medical office assistants. Vaccinations are not yet available for community health care workers who work in corporate or administrative areas, and other non-direct care staff who do not work in patient or client care areas, or are not employed by a health authority. As well, we have been able to book appointments for direct care staff at Community Living BC group homes.

Please check your VCH email inbox for a memo with information about booking an appointment. If you are not able to secure an appointment this week, more will be offered in the coming weeks – we appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to implement the provincial COVID-19 Immunization Plan.

Health-care workers in VCH may access COVID-19 immunization clinics in the Fraser Health region this week

Thanks to the provincial COVID-19 Immunization Plan, health authorities in B.C. are collaborating to ensure those in our priority groups are able to receive vaccine as quickly and effectively as possible. This week only, Vancouver Coastal Health, Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) and Providence Health Care (PHC) workers eligible for COVID-19 vaccination have the option of attending a clinic in the Fraser Health region for a first dose of vaccine if it’s more convenient for them. If you are eligible to receive the vaccine at this time, please check your VCH email inbox for a memo with information about booking an appointment through Fraser Health. These appointments have been made available at Fraser Health for VCH, PHSA and PHC health-care workers thanks to supply and capacity variables. Unfortunately, our VCH clinics do not have similar capacity for personnel from other health authorities at this time.

Vaccine appointments are now available for seniors 90 years and older and Indigenous Elders 65 years and older

Today, along with other health authorities across the province, VCH opened up our telephone line for seniors 90 years and older and Indigenous Elders 65 years and older to book appointments for their first dose of vaccine. Seniors 80 years and older living in the Sea to Sky, Sunshine Coast, and Powell River areas are also now eligible to book appointments at this time.

As expected, there was overwhelming demand for appointments; we know many people are eager to receive their COVID-19 vaccine. If you or someone you know is booking an appointment for an older family member, we thank you for your patience and ask that if you were not able to book an appointment today that you try back again later this week. No one in this priority group will lose their chance to be vaccinated and will get an appointment booked in the coming weeks. More resources will be added each week to accommodate increased volumes of calls.

As B.C. moves into Phase 3 in April and begins to vaccinate more of the general population, a province-wide online booking tool will be available.

Question of the day

Q: The US Centre for Disease Control has released guidelines about what fully vaccinated people can do now. Will something like that be available for B.C.?

A: With more people in B.C. and around the world receiving their vaccinations every day, there have been many questions about whether public health guidance and restrictions will change for those who have been fully vaccinated. We are still learning about whether the COVID-19 virus can be acquired and transmitted asymptomatically by those who have already been vaccinated. At this time, we’re asking everyone who has received either one or both doses of the vaccine to continue to follow all public health guidance, including staying home when sick, maintaining good hand hygiene, and practicing social distancing. Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, said in her briefing today that public health experts at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control have started working on guidelines for vaccinated individuals in B.C. but that we are not yet at a place where we can significantly relax restrictions. There is still transmission across the province, and there are many more people who remain at higher risk of severe illness who have not yet been vaccinated.

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

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.

To date, 239,833 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 68,157 of which are second doses. Immunization data is available on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) COVID-19 dashboard.

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

Vaccination program updates and more →

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 →

VIRTUAL MEDICAL STAFF FORUM (FOR PHYSICIANS, MIDWIVES, NURSE PRACTITIONERS AND DENTISTS) - MARCH 10 COVID-19 vaccine updates and campaign rollout

Join us on Wednesday, March 10, 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. for the Virtual Medical Staff Forum (physicians, midwives, nurse practitioners, dentists).

Topic: Stay up to date on the latest vaccine updates from the experts, and hear from special guests Dr. Penny Ballem, Vancouver Coastal Health Board Chair & Executive Lead, BC Immunize Program, and Vivian Eliopoulos, Interim President and CEO, Vancouver Coastal Health.

Panelists: Dr. Penny Ballem, Dr. Patty Daly, Vivian Eliopoulos, Dr. Chad Kim Sing (Host), Dr. Titus Wong and Dr. Ross Brown.

We want to hear from you! Submit questions in advance on the Zoom registration page, Slack, or email [email protected]

See VCH Medical Staff Intranet and Slack for previous Medical staff forum recordings, transcripts, Q&A.

MEDICAL STAFF COVID-19 (PHYSICIANS, MIDWIVES, NURSE PRACTITIONERS & DENTISTS) Q&A: Side effects of vaccination

Q: What side effects, severity and incidence have you noted in those receiving their second dose?

A: We have seen very few side effects after either the first or second dose. We have seen a small number of allergic reactions including after the second dose. Provincially, there have been some anaphylaxis but generally we’ve seen no other serious side effects reported.

We recognize that vaccinations and needles, more broadly, can cause stress and discomfort for some. For tips on how to manage these, please visit Immunize BC.

Medical Staff Q&A were generated during the Feb 16th Medical staff forum. The AV recording of the previous forums, as well as the full transcripts and a running list of Q&A will be available shortly on the intranet site.

UPDATE ON NEW AND EXISTING COVID-19 CASES (as of March 8, 2021)

There were 545 new cases of COVID-19 between March 5 to 6, 532 cases between March 6 to 7, and 385 cases in the last 24 hours. This results in a total of 1,462 new cases, for a total of 84,569 cases in B.C. Active cases: 4,854 Vancouver Coastal Health: 407 new cases Fraser: 802 new cases Interior Health: 79 new cases Island Health: 72 new cases Northern Health: 102 new cases People who normally reside outside of Canada: 0 new cases 144 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern for B.C. 240 hospitalized 66 currently admitted to ICU 78,2237 people have recovered 11 new deaths and 1,391 confirmed deaths in total

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.