Four of B.C.'s five health authorities have used up all of their Pfizer vaccine available, after delays in delivery from the federal government this week.
As of Tuesday, 28,209 British Columbians had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but on Wednesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said four of B.C.'s health authorities have run out of their supply of the Pfizer vaccine for the time being. He did not specify what health authorities those were.
“We're expecting 16,125 doses, we were hoping for Monday,” Dix said Wednesday. “We're now hoping for either later today or tomorrow from the federal government. So that meant that some vaccination clinics in a couple of places had to be delayed today because they didn't have any vaccine.”
Meanwhile, 20,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine that were delivered to B.C. during the New Year's period have been delivered to 19 remote First Nation communities.
Dix said he believes the federal government is doing a good job in rolling out the vaccine though.
“The only limit, really, to the immunization campaign is the amount of vaccine we have,” he said. “This is not a criticism of anybody, it's not a criticism of the federal government, it's not a response to the Prime Minister, but we can only deliver the vaccine we have.”
On Monday, Dr. Bonnie Henry said the roll out of the vaccines has been slower than she had been hoping for so far.
Dix said the provincial government is planning ahead to next month when he expects B.C. to receive roughly 40,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on a weekly basis.
“We'll obviously have to ramp up at that point,” Dix said. “We're expecting enough vaccines to immunize ten per cent of our population by March.”
Last month, Dr. Henry said every British Columbian who wants a COVID-19 vaccine should be able to get one by September.
This story originally appeared on Castanet
