B.C.’s top doctor urges vaccinations amid anticipated spike in autumn

COVID-19 is far from over, but B.C. is in a good place, for now, because of vaccinations, according to the province’s top doctor.

“They are a magic bullet,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday with regard to whether she felt vaccines are allowing B.C. to weather the last surge of Omicron without broad devastation of illness or pressure on the health-care system.

However, she added “they’re not perfect.”

“That’s why we all need to do that day-to-day assessment of where we are. But we’ve done this before. We’re used to this.”

This was Henry’s first COVID-19 briefing with reporters since early April when most restrictions were lifted.

She urges everyone to get all the doses they are eligible for, including any shots missed due to coming down with COVID earlier this year.

“We need to be prepared that we’re going to see a surge in the fall,” she said. “There are things that we’ll have to go back to, to remember about how we can do that.”

If all goes well, Henry hopes that won’t include issuing public health orders.

“I hope and I expect that we’ll never have to put in orders that require people to do those things, like we did when we didn’t know what was going on over the last 2.5 years. But we will rely on each other to take those measures, when we start to see things increase in transmission again.”

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the health-care system is still facing challenges, adding up to 18,000 workers missed at least one day of work.

“It doesn’t mean they’re off sick all day but … that’s a significant number of people.”

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On Tuesday, B.C. also released a list of COVID vaccination rates among 17 different registered health professionals.

“About 94 per cent overall have been vaccinated or are medically exempt,” Dix explained.

The professions with the highest vaccination rates are physicians and surgeons, as well as dieticians. The province reports 98 per cent for each of those groups. At least 96 per cent of registered occupational therapists, pharmacists, optometrists, pharmacy technicians, and psychologists are also either vaccinated or exempt.

The groups with the lowest percentages are naturopathic physicians (69.2%), chiropractors (78.1%), and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists (79%).

In Tuesday’s briefing, Henry says she herself has not tested positive for COVID.

“I’ve managed to clean my hands enough, I guess, and wear masks in the right places,” she said. “No, I have not yet. But I do know that I’ve been around people that have.”