There was a quick wave of fear in B.C. this week when provincial well being officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reported {that a} COVID-19 outbreak at a Kelowna senior care residence included new infections in individuals who have been vaccinated twice.
Whereas seniors and their caregivers aren’t completely protected by vaccination, the impact has been dramatic since nurses, care aides and long-term care residence residents reached three weeks after receiving their first doses. Knowledge launched by the B.C. Centre for Illness Management Thursday tracked new infections of all B.C. well being care staff, and in addition residents of long-term care, assisted residing and impartial residing services.
From Dec. 15, 2020 to Feb. 15, 2021, there have been 203 coronavirus circumstances confirmed in long-term care houses, and 89 per cent of them occurred within the first 21 days after the vaccine was administered. After immune methods have three weeks to regulate to the vaccine, new infections all however disappear.
The same development is seen in knowledge from well being care staff over the identical interval. With staff topic to the chance of neighborhood publicity in addition to at work, there have been 346 new circumstances from Dec. 15 to Feb. 15 amongst B.C. well being care staff. Once more, 86 per cent of these infections occurred earlier than every staffer reached 21 days with vaccine of their system, dropping to virtually none afterward.
Henry mentioned these outcomes have been key to her choice to increase the utmost time between pictures as much as 4 months. After some preliminary objections, federal well being consultants have endorsed the transfer.
“This work has allowed us to know the safety that we get, even in conditions like long-term care houses with our most weak of seniors and elders, that we will have wonderful safety from a single dose,” Henry mentioned in presenting the most recent modelling knowledge March 11. “And that’s what has supported us to have the ability to make that actually essential choice to increase the interval for second doses in order that we will shield extra individuals extra shortly, and win that race that we’re in proper now.
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