Photo: Times Colonist / Darren Stone
Some 190,000 health workers had to be vaccinated against COVID-19 under a provincial health order.
BC continues its mandate to vaccinate COVID-19 for public officials and health care workers, although the federal government has suspended its two-shot requirement for federally regulated workers and travelers.
BC Health Minister Adrian Dix said he continues to support both last year’s provincial health order which required all health workers in hospitals, long-term residences and community health centers to be vaccinated. as per the order of the council which made vaccinations a condition. employment of public service employees.
“I wouldn’t expect any change in mandates anytime soon,” Dix said in an interview Monday.
BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon last week called on the BC government to follow Ottawa’s path to suspend vaccination requirements for provincial employees and health care workers.
“British Columbia is out of step with the rest of the country in that regard,” Falcon said. “We now have a situation that only justifies the immediate lifting of the vaccine mandate.”
Falcon said the vaccine requirement is exacerbating the critical shortage of health workers that has seen the temporary closure of emergency rooms in the island’s rural communities, as well as northern and local health authorities. ‘interior.
Some 190,000 health workers, including about 50,000 in long-term care, were to be vaccinated by COVID-19 under a provincial health order. About 99% were vaccinated and the rest lost their jobs for not doing so.
The BC Public Service Agency demanded that its 30,000 employees be fully vaccinated. As of April 20, he said, 402 employees were not vaccinated or refused to disclose their vaccination status as required by the COVID-19 vaccination policy, and about 150 had lost their jobs. .
The agency said Monday that its vaccination policy remains in place, with nearly 99% of employees fully vaccinated. “As the pandemic is not over and its trajectory remains uncertain, the BC Public Service believes it is prudent to maintain the vaccination policy.”
Falcon said some 2,500 health workers and other public service employees are on the sidelines “at a time when the health care system, to use the Prime Minister’s own words, is collapsing and faltering.”
Dix said the federal government appears to want to cancel the two vaccine warrants, “but I disagree.”
The Health Minister said the problem is not the mandates but the COVID-19, which continues to profoundly affect the healthcare system. He said there is a constant need to protect residents from long-term care and assisted living, as well as patients in acute care settings and the larger health care system.
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