Studies conducted on long-term care residents and healthcare workers helped make the decision on delaying second doses.
Case counts among residents and staff in long-term care facilities plummeted after around 12 days following immunization. The effectiveness of vaccines was around 90 per cent after three weeks, with protection lasting several months according to Dr. Henry
“Right now we know that maximizing the benefit of a single dose for more people in British Columbia is going to get us to our post pandemic goal sooner and is going to protect more people, keep more people from needing hospitalizations and prevent more people from dying.”
Over 283,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered as of Monday, Mar. 1 province-wide, including 86,537 second doses.
The province announced 438 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. during a Tuesday briefing.
Island Health reported 23 new cases including eight in the central Island region. Active cases in the health authority dropped to 291 with a decrease of 18 in central Vancouver Island, now reporting 170 active cases.
The number active cases in B.C. ballooned to 4,679 as the province effectively gave up gains made over the weekend.
Hospitalizations in B.C. increased by seven to 243, with the 63 people in ICU representing a slightly decrease from Monday but remaining on par from the last week.
Two people, one each in Fraser and Northern Health, died in the last 24 hours from COVID-19 related ailments, taking B.C.’s death toll to 1,365.
The province is also continuing to track two variants of concern circulating in B.C., with 182 total cases confirmed however just eight remain active with one of those people in hospital.
Public health is still unsure where roughly one quarter of cases involving international variants were exposed to the virus. Thirteen per cent are linked to travel while another 60 per cent are close contacts of already confirmed cases.
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