British Columbia's first doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine will be going to frontline health-care workers, including those in the province's long-term care system.
That's partly because of the logistical complications related to Pfizer's vaccine, which has to be kept in extreme sub-zero temperatures and can't be easily delivered directly to seniors' homes and their vulnerable residents.
"The Pfizer vaccine requires us to provide the vaccine at the site where it is delivered," provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Wednesday. "That will be the case for the first few weeks of this program, which means we need to bring people to the vaccine instead of the vaccine to the people at this point."
B.C. health officials shared details of their early rollout plans at a briefing with Premier John Horgan, announcing the early doses will be given out at two designated distribution centres equipped with the ultra-low temperature freezers required to store them.
One will be in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and the other will be in the Fraser Health region, though officials have not specified the exact locations.
B.C. is scheduled to receive four trays of about 975 doses next week, but officials said they expect to receive "tens of thousands" more in the last two weeks of December.
They will be distributed to people working in long-term care homes and assisted living facilities, as well as hospital emergency wards and intensive care units. Henry said immunizing care home workers will help protect the elderly residents who live in the facilities until they can be vaccinated as well.
The decision about who to vaccinate first was made using guidelines set out by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which were agreed upon across Canada. Henry said the focus of their decisions has been on saving lives.
"We know the lives that are being taken and affected most are seniors and elders in long-term care and assisted living," she said. "In addition, we have to protect our strained health-care system so all of us can get the care we need, when we need it."
Even once the vaccine is expanded to other groups and demographics, Henry noted the Pfzier vaccine is not approved for everyone. The effects on children under the age of 16, pregnant women and people with immunocompromised conditions are not yet known.
"That is something that we are looking at because we know that people whose immune systems are not functioning – whether that's from cancer treatments or other medications they're on – are at more risk of having severe illness from COVID-19," Henry said. "Unfortunately, we do not yet know if these vaccines work in people who are immunocompromised and if they're safe."
The Moderna vaccine, which officials expect will also receive approval in Canada, is less complicated to transport and Henry said they should be able to deliver that directly to seniors in care. While it must be stored in sub-zero temperatures as well, they aren't as extreme as those required by the Pfizer vaccine.
Both vaccines require two doses for maximum efficiency.
The B.C. government expects to be able to immunize nearly 400,000 people in British Columbia by the end of March, though officials stressed that's far below what's required for herd immunity.