Every New Westminster resident who wants a COVID-19 immunization will get one – and everyone can get a jump start on the process by registering for one now.
That message was reiterated at a community forum held Thursday evening (April 8) via Zoom to answer local residents’ questions about the COVID vaccine rollout and pandemic response in New Westminster.
Mayor Jonathan Cote and Coun. Chinu Das hosted the forum alongside guests from Fraser Health: Dr. Ingrid Tyler, medical health officer and executive medical director, and Sharat Chandra, part of the vaccine logistics team.
Tyler noted that, as of today, almost one in five British Columbians have received their first dose.
“We are strongly urging everyone who is eligible to receive their vaccine to register now,” she said.
She also stressed that every eligible British Columbian who wants a vaccine will receive one.
“Please don’t get discouraged if it takes a little longer to book your appointment,” she said.
The forum covered a range of information and questions submitted by residents. Here are some key points:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO REGISTER FOR MY VACCINE?
British Columbians can head to the Get Vaccinated site to register online (you’ll need to provide your name and address information, date of birth and personal health number).
You can also register by phone at 1-833-838-2323 or in person at any Service B.C. site.
For those who need service in a language other than English, translation service is available for more than 110 languages between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. through the central phone number.
Once you register, you’ll get a confirmation number that you’ll save for future reference when you have a vaccine appointment. You’ll be notified in whatever way is easiest for you – email or text message – when it’s your turn to book an immunization appointment.
WHERE CAN I BE VACCINATED?
All British Columbians can be vaccinated as part of B.C.’s age-based rollout, which is currently serving people aged 70 and up. The program is working its way down through age cohorts based on vaccine supply. Indigenous adults (aged 18 and up) and all people declared clinically extremely vulnerable (who are in possession of a medical letter to that effect) can also get vaccinated now.
Those vaccinations are booked centrally through the new provincewide system and can be made for clinics around the region. In New Westminster, those clinics are now located at Anvil Centre and Douglas College.
People aged 55 to 65 can also continue to take part in a pharmacy-based program that’s providing the AstraZeneca vaccine through local pharmacies. Participating pharmacies are listed on the B.C. Pharmacy Association website.
Several New Westminster pharmacies are now listed, covering a number of neighbourhoods, including downtown (Imperial Pharmacy, Longevity Compounding Pharmacy, Pharmasave, Shoppers Drug Mart, Ultracare Guardian Pharmacy), uptown (Wal-Mart Royal City Centre), Sapperton (Indigo Pharmacy) and the West End (West End Medicine Centre).
Those appointments must be made by contacting pharmacies directly.
HOW MANY VACCINATIONS CAN BE DONE EACH DAY IN NEW WEST?
Chandra didn’t provide a specific local number, but he noted that, across the region, Fraser Health can do anywhere from 9,000 to 22,000 immunizations per day – depending on supply and the uptake of appointments.
He said the Anvil Centre clinic will be starting off with 10 stations at a time and can be open to more as the population requires it. It will run seven days a week, eight hours a day.
ALL NEW WESTMINSTER VACCINATION CLINICS ARE BOOKED. WHERE SHOULD I GO TO GET VACCINATED?
Chandra recommended people head to the Get Vaccinated website, where they’ll be able to see appointments coming up in the next week and/or more options available this week in other communities. As more appointments are made available while clinics scale up, those will become available in the system.
Das, who just signed up for her own COVID shot, noted the process was simple and smooth. She said she registered online at 11 a.m. and had heard back by 1 p.m. the same day. As she was in an eligible age group, she was allowed to book an appointment – which took less than five minutes – and she’s now going in next week.
“It was very, very seamless,” she said. “It was quite surprised. … It was absolutely a breeze.”
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO GET TO MY AGE GROUP?
Chandra noted that B.C. was vaccinating the 80-and-up group on March 15 and is now down to age 70.
The number of people who can be vaccinated will depend in part upon supply and in part upon how many people are in any given age group.
Tyler stressed the number of people in an age group makes a significant difference to how long it will take to get through that population. With the provincial system in place, she said, officials will regularly monitor the numbers that are going through to ensure that no appointments are wasted and no vaccine is wasted.
But she said it’s difficult to say exactly how long it will take to get through each age cohort because that will depend upon the size of the population who falls into it.
WHICH VACCINE WILL I GET?
B.C.’s immunization program currently has three vaccines in use: Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are now being used at Fraser Health’s public COVID-19 immunization clinics, including the New Westminster sites at Anvil Centre and Douglas College.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is available through the pharmacy-based program for 55-to-65-year-olds.
Tyler said all three vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death from COVID, regardless of a person’s age.
WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I HAVE ALLERGY CONCERNS ABOUT A SPECIFIC VACCINE? WHERE CAN I FIND OUT WHAT COMPONENTS ARE IN EACH ONE?
Tyler noted that Health Canada, which is responsible for approving all pharmaceutical products in the country, lists all the safety information and vaccine ingredients at its website.
She said the majority of the components in all the vaccines are innocuous; only one – PEG (polyethylene glycol) has been linked to some allergic reactions. She said the only known contraindication to the vaccines so far is a history of PEG allergy; if you have a history of such an allergy, you will likely be aware of it already.
HOW WERE VACCINE CLINIC LOCATIONS CHOSEN? WILL YOU OPEN UP CENTURY HOUSE OR ANOTHER UPTOWN OPTION IN NEW WESTMINSTER AGAIN?
Chandra noted Fraser Health has worked with its partners, including the City of New Westminster, to establish clinics in convenient locations, close to where people work and live and easily accessible by transit.
He noted health officials are monitoring clinic volumes on a daily basis and will be able to flex clinics up and down to meet community needs when vaccine supply allows.
Century House was being used in the early days to accommodate vaccine appointments, but that clinic has been wound up now that the Anvil Centre clinic is open. Anvil Centre was chosen because it’s close to SkyTrain and a major bus loop and is also of sufficient size to accommodate a large-scale vaccination effort.
Mayor Jonathan Cote acknowledged there are more seniors uptown but noted Anvil is of a larger size than other civic facilities.
Chandra said Fraser Health will monitor the situation at Anvil Centre and added that, if there’s a need to reach other parts of the community, Fraser Health may consider other options in future.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION TO COVID APPOINTMENTS FOR SENIORS IN NEED?
Mayor Jonathan Cote noted transportation to clinics has been a topic of conversation with the mayors’ council and TransLink. Pilot projects have been set up with the HandyDart system to help coordinate its scheduling with vaccination clinics.
Chandra said Fraser Health is working with TransLink and B.C. Transit to develop a transportation strategy and has pilot programs up and running in various communities. In the next few weeks, he said, Fraser Health will be able to unroll some options for other communities in the region.
ONCE I’M VACCINATED, CAN I GET BACK TO NORMAL LIFE?
Tyler stressed it’s crucial that everyone, even those who have been vaccinated, continue to follow the guidance of provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and obey all public health orders.
“We are seeing high numbers of cases in Fraser Health,” she said, adding the region is also increasingly seeing cases of the variants of concern.
“After you get a vaccine, we’re not out of the woods yet. You need to keep up those preventative measures.”
That means even vaccinated people must continue to follow the protocols we’ve all become accustomed to: wear masks, wash hands, maintain appropriate social distance, and stay home when sick.
I’VE HAD MY FIRST SHOT AND WAS TOLD IT WILL BE MONTHS BEFORE MY SECOND DOSE IS AVAILABLE. WILL I BE NOTIFIED, OR IS IT MY RESPONSIBILITY TO BOOK THAT APPOINTMENT?
Everyone who gets their first vaccine dose will get notification via email, text or phone call when their eligibility comes up for the second dose, Chandra said.
IF I GET A MODERNA VACCINE AS MY FIRST DOSE, WILL I GET THE SAME FOR MY SECOND?
Yes. Tyler said it’s important for people to remember what they received for their first dose, since they’ll be asked for that information when booking their second dose. (You’ll receive a vaccine card when you get your first dose that will record that information for you.)
“Currently the vaccines have not been approved as interchangeable,” she said, but she added studies are ongoing to that end.
IS THE PROTECTION FROM MY VACCINE GOOD FOR A LIFETIME, OR WILL I NEED ANOTHER SHOT? DO PFIZER AND MODERNA REQUIRE A SECOND DOSE?
Tyler said all three of the currently available options give very good protection from just one dose after two or three weeks. All require a second dose, and that dose may now be delayed by up to four months because of evidence that the first shot unto itself gives “very, very good protection.”
For now, she said, the provincial priority is to get everybody their first shot and then move on to second shots in order to help create “herd immunity” and make the virus less likely to transfer between people.
“We can be assured that the protection from a single first dose is very, very good and that immunity can be locked in and boosted by a second dose,” she said.
Because COVID vaccines have been in existence for such a short time, Tyler said health officials don’t yet know whether the immune response from the vaccine will be a permanent one or whether it will require re-immunization.
“There is absolutely no reason to believe that one becomes sort of un-immune,” she said. “We have every reason to believe that immunity is long-lasting.”
Tyler cited the example of vaccines such as measles, which are given once in a lifetime (with followup testing on pregnant women that sometimes leads to a booster dose) and tetanus, which is recommended once every 10 years.
Flu shots, she noted, are renewed every year because the flu virus mutates and the strains are different every year, so a new vaccine provides up-to-date protection.
What will happen with COVID will be determined over time, she said, noting we will be learning to live with COVID for a number of years to come.
I’M HEALTHY AND I’M CAREFUL, AND I HAVEN’T HAD ANY ISSUES. WHY SHOULD I GET THE VACCINE?
Tyler noted the vaccine will boost your body’s immune system and allow your body to develop an immediate antibody response, should it come into contact with the virus, before it gets a chance to make you sick.
Even if you don’t expect to get seriously sick from COVID, she said, it still makes sense to get vaccinated.
“First of all, you never know,” she said, noting that although there are some groups known to be at higher risk than others, it’s not unheard of that younger and healthy people have had poor outcomes from the virus.
Moreover, she said, the medical community is still studying the possible long-term effects of COVID infection.
“In my opinion, the safer bet is to get vaccinated,” she said. “You do never know, and it’s an added layer of protection.”
If that’s not enough to convince you, Tyler said, the other reason is to protect others. If the virus is less likely to build up in your system because antibodies are always fighting it, then you’re not going to be as infectious to others.
“You may actually be preventing further transmission within our communities, and you may be protecting your friends, family, elderly relatives and others,” she said.
Tyler said B.C. needs case numbers to go down, which means it needs more and more people to develop antibodies before it can return to “some version of normal” again.
“The higher the vaccination rates, the lower the case numbers, the closer we’re going to be to lifting some of those orders, getting the kids back in sports, being able to normally interact with our friends and loved ones,” she said.
WHERE CAN I STAY ON TOP OF THE LATEST INFORMATION?
With new information coming out daily, Cote said residents should always check the Fraser Health website and the City of New Westminster website for the latest news.
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca.
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