People living in long-term care or assisted living facilities will soon receive a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said today.

She explained that since older people have less strong immune responses to most vaccines, and because they were also among the first to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a booster dose will be provided starting next week. 

“In these congregate settings, even when we have most of the residents fully immunized, if this this virus is introduced into those settings there is a significant number of people who will have breakthrough infections, and this in an elderly population can be lethal,” said Henry. “We know that our seniors and Elders have carried a heavy burden, and we continue to see cases in these homes.”

At the same time, the high-dose influenza vaccine will be provided to residents.

Meanwhile, the province is seeing increased infections in younger people who have not yet had the opportunity to be immunized—those under age 18. While there have not been increases in more severe illness in these age groups, Henry said the increase in infections is concerning.

“What we’ve seen is a dramatic increase in numbers of children, particularly school-aged children, who are been tested for COVID-19 in the past three weeks, since school started again,” said Henry. “That is something that we expected, we saw that last year as well. We’ve  gone up from about 100 children a day being tested across the age groups to over 500 children a day.”

“That tells us that we’re seeing school-aged children having illness that leads them to be tested, and that the testing has gone up quite dramatically, but the test positivity has stayed lower or gone down in most cases. The one area that we’re seeing that is still high is children aged five to 11, where it’s around five to 10 per cent, it’s somewhere in that range, of those children who are tested. That means that the case numbers are going up in that age group in particular.”

The percent positivity is decreasing in older children who are protected through vaccination, she said, despite increased testing. The same is true for the zero to four-year-old age group.

Henry said in areas where community vaccination rates are higher—including the Vancouver Coastal Health region—rates of the virus among school-aged children stay “low and steady.”

The Vancouver School Board made masks mandatory for students in Kindergarten to Grade 3 this week, but Henry said the province will not mandate the same thing across the board.

“I think you can’t directly compare the report that came out of the (U.S. Centres for Disease Control) that looked at communities and schools without mask mandates and a number of other factors that are protective factors,” she said. “It is really important to remember that we still have many layers of protection in place in our schools, and masking is one of those layers,” she said."

A new school notification process will begin today, where potential exposure events will be posted on health authorities’ websites. Letters will not be sent to individual schools, unlike last year.

Due to the increase in cases in the Fraser East region—including among school-aged children—and the lower vaccination rate in this area, new restrictions will be in place. The area includes Hope, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Mission and Agassiz-Harrison.

Private indoor gatherings are limited to five additional people or one additional household, and outside there can be up to 10 people unless all attendees are fully vaccinated. Organized events like weddings and conferences are limited to 10 people inside or 50 people outside, unless all participants are fully vaccinated.

“We’re seeing … transmission between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in these organized settings,” said Henry.

Ticketed events, as well as indoor sports, exercise and fitness classes, will only admit fully vaccinated people. Masks must be worn in all indoor workplaces, subject to some exemptions and safety considerations.

Health officials reported 652 new cases of COVID-19 today. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 185,432 cases.

Of the new cases, 70 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), 219 in the Fraser Health region, 82 in the Island Health region, 162 in the Interior Health region, 117 in the Northern Health region and two new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There are 5,992 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 316 of those people are hospitalized, 141 of whom are in intensive care. 

Henry said the number of people who are hospitalized but no longer have active cases of COVID-19 will be reported weekly in the province’s surveillance reports. She said for “the last little while,” there have been around 140 people still recovering in hospital “after their acute illness.”

Due to pressure on the healthcare system, Health Minister Adrian Dix said last week (Sept. 19-25) there were 344 surgeries postponed across B.C., including 63 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. Since Sept. 5, 1,143 surgeries have been postponed.

To date, 7,812,228 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 3,736,540 of those are second doses. 

This means that 88.3 per cent of adults and 87.8 per cent of people aged 12 and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 81.4 per cent of adults and 80.6 per cent of those aged 12 and older have received two doses.

Sadly, there were two new virus-related deaths reported today, bringing that total to 1,942.

Health authorities reported three new healthcare facility outbreaks and declared one over. Active outbreaks continue at 18 long-term care facilities and four assisted or independent living facilities.

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and to find a testing centre near you: http://www.bccdc.ca/ or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.