All adults who live, work in Whistler now eligible for COVID-19 vaccine

WHISTLER (NEWS 1130) — Starting Monday, all adults who live or work in Whistler will be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Vancouver Coastal Health announced the two-week immunization effort for the hard-hit resort municipality Sunday.

Registration can be done online, and shots will be administered at the Whistler Conference Centre.

NEW: Adults 18+ who live or work in #Whistler can get vaccinated against #COVID19 during a two-week vaccination program that begins tomorrow. @VCHhealthcare says it's b/c of rising cases in the local health area, which has the highest rate of the virus in BC. More on @NEWS1130.

— Monika Gul (@MonikaGul) April 11, 2021

Proof of eligibility will be required for anyone who shows up to get the jab.

“Eligible residents will be required to provide proof of their permanent resident address in Whistler with a B.C. Driver’s License or valid credit card statement with their Whistler address,” says a statement from the health authority.

“Eligible adults working in Whistler, who do not reside in the community, will be required to present a recent paystub confirming their local Whistler employment.”

Anyone who is unable to prove eligibility will be turned away. This new vaccination effort is running parallel to the ongoing age-based rollout, and the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine at pharmacies for those 55 to 65.

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The announcement of this plan comes as the Howe Sound Corridor records the highest case rate in any community since the start of the pandemic, according to Dr. Penny Ballem who is heading up the province’s vaccine rollout.

“There are 400 new cases this last week in the corridor. The majority of those are in Whistler,” she says.

Ballem says this is the third surge in Whitler since January.

“We’ve used aggressive public health measures to try to manage them,” she says.

“This one is particularly severe, and it is persistent. We’re at a place now where we’ve got to get better containment of this surge.”

One factor driving the spread is the housing situation, Ballem explains.

“We have many young people living in close quarters,” she says.

“We have staff in congregate settings, they’re in staff housing, and they’re in housing, out and about in the community where we have, you know, a number of young adults sharing one bedroom, sharing small living spaces, and as you can imagine that makes it very very difficult when one of them gets infected to self-isolate.”

The P.1 variant of the virus, first identified in Brazil, is another factor.

Last Tuesday, Dr. Bonnie Henry announced B.C. had recorded a total of 877 cases of the P.1 variant — with more than 22 per cent of cases linked to the popular ski resort.

It’s believed the mutation made its way there through visitors from other parts of Canada, she explained.

“But then it started to circulated in some of the chains of transmission in Whistler as well between workers, visitors, and from there spread to other parts of the province.”

With files from Marcella Bernardo