VANCOUVER —
British Columbia’s first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine will be going to certain frontline health-care workers, including those in the province’s long-term care system.
That’s partly because of the logistical complications related to Pfizer’s vaccine, which has to be kept in extreme sub-zero temperatures and can’t be easily delivered directly to seniors’ homes and their vulnerable residents.
“The Pfizer vaccine requires us to provide the vaccine at the site where it is delivered,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Wednesday. “That will be the case for the first few weeks of this program, which means we need to bring people to the vaccine instead of the vaccine to the people at this point.”
B.C. health officials shared details of their early rollout plans at a briefing with Premier John Horgan, announcing the early doses will be given out at two designated distribution centres equipped with the ultra-low temperature freezers required to store them. Eligible workers will have to go to the sites to receive their doses.
One will be in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and the other will be in the Fraser Health region, though officials have not specified the exact locations.
B.C. is scheduled to receive four trays of about 975 doses each next week, but officials said they expect to receive “tens of thousands” more doses in the last two weeks of December.
They will be distributed to people working in long-term care homes and assisted living facilities, as well as those in high-risk environments such as hospital emergency wards and intensive care units. Henry said immunizing care home workers will help protect the elderly residents who live in the facilities until they can be vaccinated as well.
The decision about who to vaccinate first was made using guidelines set out by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which were agreed upon across Canada. Henry said the focus of their decisions has been on saving lives.
“We know the lives that are being taken and affected most are seniors and elders in long-term care and assisted living,” she said. “In addition, we have to protect our strained health-care system so all of us can get the care we need, when we need it.”
Plans for January and beyond
The province hopes to expand the number of designated distribution centres to nine locations in January, with an eventual eye on setting up dozens in different parts of B.C.
“We’re working on having 30 sites around the province that are ready and trained to receive these vaccines and they will have the ultra-low temperature freezers needed on site,” Henry said.
Even once the availability of the vaccine is expanded to other groups and demographics, Henry noted the Pfzier vaccine is not approved for everyone. The effects on children under the age of 16, pregnant women and people with immunocompromised conditions are not yet known.
“That is something that we are looking at because we know that people whose immune systems are not functioning – whether that’s from cancer treatments or other medications they’re on – are at more risk of having severe illness from COVID-19,” Henry said. “Unfortunately, we do not yet know if these vaccines work in people who are immunocompromised and if they’re safe.”
The Moderna vaccine, which officials expect will also receive approval in Canada, is less complicated to transport and Henry said they should be able to deliver that directly to seniors in care. While it must be stored in sub-zero temperatures as well, they aren’t as low as those required by the Pfizer vaccine.
Both vaccines require two doses for maximum efficiency.
The B.C. government expects to be able to immunize nearly 400,000 people in British Columbia by the end of March, though officials stressed that’s far below what’s required for herd immunity.
In the meantime, Premier Horgan noted there’s much to be optimistic about after the unexpected challenges the world has faced in 2020.
“We have a glimmer of hope that although the end is not in front of us, the beginning of the end may well be,” he said.
“As we see an increase in supply we’re going to see an increase in optimism and an increase in opportunities for us to get back to what is remotely resembling normal.”
How the vaccines work
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a new process called synthetic messenger RNA, which Henry said has been worked on for decades and is now promising a potential revolution in vaccine technology.
“We’ve taken a piece of the genetic code from the virus that helps translate into the spike protein – that little spikey bit on the outside of the virus,” she said. “That protein then is produced by our cells and our immune system responds to that to develop antibodies, and then if we’re exposed to the virus, we have those antibodies that attach to it and protect us from becoming ill.”
The messenger RNA is a delicate substance that’s wrapped in a protective coating called a lipid nanoparticle, Henry said, which is what necessitates the sub-zero storage temperatures.
The rapid development of the vaccines has raised concern among some people, particularly groups who were already prone to vaccine skepticism. Henry noted the quick turnaround was possible, in part, because clinical trials that would normally have happened in sequence were instead conducted simultaneously.
“The greatest brains around the world were put to this process and this task,” she said. “And of course we had the addition of a lot of money.”
Officials said they were initially hoping for an effective rate of 50 to 60 per cent. Instead, both Pfizer and Moderna have said their vaccines are around 95 per cent effective against the coronavirus.
“The fact that these ones are in the high 90s is the best that we could hope for in public health,” Henry said.
HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
