B.C.’s COVID-19 vaccination program has begun accepting registrations and booking appointments for children aged 12 to 17, Health Minister Adrian Dix said Wednesday.
The vaccinations will be done at community clinics where facilities and staff are prepared to handle sensitive vaccines, not at schools, as the province has opened up vaccination bookings for all adults in recent days. Dix said.
“In many cases it allows families to go together to get vaccinated,” Dix told reporters at the B.C. legislature May 19.
More details on the vaccination of under-18s will be provided at the briefing scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday with Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Everyone eligible can register for a vaccination online here, by phone at 1-833-838-2323 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week, or at a Service B.C. office in person.
B.C. public health recorded 521 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the first time over 500 in the past six days. There are 340 people in hospital with coronavirus-related conditions as of May 19, 118 of them in intensive care. There have been eight additional deaths in the past 24 hours, for a total of 1,658 since the pandemic began.
“Since we last reported, we have had 77 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 335 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 18 in the Island Health region, 62 in the Interior Health region, 29 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada,” Dix and Henry said in their latest update Wednesday.
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