More restrictions could be imposed in Peace River region

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said 71 per cent of the province of B.C. was fully immunized, that number has been corrected to 81 per cent. On Friday, Canada’s top doctor also confirmed that 80 per cent of the country’s eligible population has been immunized, not 60 per cent as previously published. 

DAWSON CREEK (NEWS 1130) – The prospect of further restrictions is looming over a part of the province where vaccination rates are the lowest in BC.

In Canada, 80 per cent of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated, while that number is nearly 81 per cent of eligible adults in B.C.

The percentage drops to 65 per cent for Northern Health. The health region has broken down vaccination rates for each community. Its most recent chart shows municipalities in the Peace River region particularly low. For example, the town of Chetwynd shows only 48 per cent of people fully vaccinated, while Peace River South Rural shows only 38 per cent.

In the meantime, case counts in the health region continue to climb. The test positivity rate, as of September 14, was 24 per cent, whereas it is about 10 per cent provincially. For the week ending September 11, the province’s COVID incident rate was 79 per 100,000, but it was 206 per 100,000 in Northern Health.

In a statement issued last week, Northern Health said it is was increasing the number of staff to make calls to people who have tested positive and to track down contacts, due to a spike in cases. It also said it was focusing contact tracing to priority settings only, but warned residents that there was a ten day delay in contacting people who tested positive.

The region has already scaled back non-urgent surgeries, and South Peace River MLA Mike Bernier says the situation could worsen.

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“Health Minister Adrian Dix warned me that more surgeries will have to be cancelled in this area. Anything that is not urgent could be cancelled,” he says.

He is hearing murmurs of a ‘circuit-breaker’ or more restrictions being considered for his part of the province.

“I have no confirmation yet. I have warned people of the Peace region and the north in general that we have to do our job and we have to protect ourselves and our neighbours.”

The situation prompted Bernier and his northern counterparts to meet with Dix earlier this week, where Bernier says they are working collaboratively across party lines.

He admits it is a challenge getting a lot of folks in his riding to get their shots.

“I will be frank. There’s a lot of confusion but there’s a lot of mistrust. There have been so many changes with what vaccines we were going to use. There is mistrust in where there were outbreaks,” he says.

“I have heard a lot of people saying that they don’t trust the government and they don’t trust the message. I have been trying to battle through that and say I’m not happy with everything government has done as well, but we need to get together and get through this.”

The Northern Health region is already under some new restrictions, imposed on September 7. They include restricting personal gatherings in homes to one additional family or five guests, and limiting gatherings outside the home to 50 people.

Bernier himself contracted COVID back in May. His family members also tested positive.