Almost 80 percent of residents over 12 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the Fernie Local Health Area according to provincial data.
The data, most recently updated on October 28 at time of writing, also showed that 86 percent of residents over 12 have at least their first dose of vaccine.
Dr. Tara Chalmers-Nixon of the Elk Valley Hospital said the numbers were encouraging, despite the Fernie LHA (which includes all of the Elk Valley and South Country which are serviced by the Elk Valley Hospital) being behind the provincial average. Provincial numbers show that 89 percent of eligible British Columbians have received a first dose, while 85 percent are fully vaccinated.
“It was still progressing and people are still booking dose 1, which is encouraging,” she said, adding that the continued trickle of uptake likely reflected employers around B.C. and Canada making full vaccination a requirement to work, pushing holdouts against vaccination to get the jab.
With workers employed by Interior Health now required to be fully vaccinated, and the province placing workers not yet fully vaccinated on unpaid leave until they do so, Chalmers-Nixon said there was little sign the Elk Valley Hospital was negatively impacted as most, if not all staffers were up to date with the health rules.
“We’ve had great uptake of the COVID vaccination strategy in our hospital,” she said.
“I know that a hundred percent of our local physicians are vaccinated. I don’t know what the uptake is among the remainder of our staff, but I would suspect any (staff) shortages we’re experiencing are due to burnout and being asked to do extra shifts.”
There are other forces on those that are yet to be vaccinated as well, with double vaccination now a requirement for gatherings in public places as per the provincial health rules. Recently, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (which owners the Fernie Alpine Resort) announced that in order to access chairlifts, guests must be fully vaccinated.
On the vaccine passport, Chalmers-Nixon said that given polling across B.C. showed majority support for the passport, it’s implementation was a no-brainer.
“I expect public policy to reflect the will of the majority, and it’s great we are doing what the majority of citizens want us to do to keep everyone safe.”
The Fernie LHA continues to show a steady number of COVID-19 case rates, but Chalmers-Nixon said that this was expected given how things were opening up again, and because the vulnerable members of society that were vaccinated almost a year ago now could be seeing waning immunity. Notably, she said it was encouraging that the test positivity rate was staying below five percent. In the most recent data set released by provincial authorities, there were eight COVID-19 cases int he Fernie LHA between October 17 and 23.
Heading into the winter season, Chalmers-Nixon said it was important for everyone to take care of themselves.
“I think everybody’s feeling a bit of the burnout - I hope people are taking the time they need to rest and hopefully as numbers continue to improve for vaccinations (going up) and case rates (going down) -that people will take the opportunity to see their family and friends and reset themselves, because we’re not out of this.”