On Monday, British Columbia opened up appointments for the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for the first tier of eligible residents under Phase 2 of its roll-out plan.
Phone lines were humming across the province, and call centres were overwhelmed with 1.7 million incoming calls just hours after the 7 a.m. launch.
Fewer than 100,000 British Columbians are currently eligible to book to get their Pfizer or Moderna first jabs. Vaccinations will begin March 15 at select locations in each health authority region; there are fewer than 50 locations in Metro Vancouver between Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health.
Fraser Health, for its part, was the only health authority to make online bookings available.
V.I.A. spoke with some locals about their thoughts on the vaccine roll-out.
Despite, as one Vancouverite put it, the "kerfuffle" with Monday's phone lines being jammed up, there is a lot of optimism among locals about when they might get their shot at the shot.
'I was hoping it would be more like voting stations'
Some concerns include how few locations will be providing the shots, compared with some places in the U.S. where large-scale venues are serving as mass vaccination sites, complete with ample parking - or drive-through service, with set-ups more like voting stations.
There are concerns about which vaccine is most effective, though recently Dr. Bonnie Henry made it clear that British Columbians will not have a choice of which shot they will get.
Others, however, feel that any blame for the vaccine roll-out in B.C. should be directed at the federal government.
Ultimately, many feel things are looking up.
"I don't think it matters when we get ours, I think it matters that everyone gets theirs, right? I think that's all that matters," a woman told V.I.A.
