More fully vaccinated people fall ill as British Columbia officials push refractories to get vaccinated

VANCOUVER – Every person who gets vaccinated against COVID-19 brings the province closer to an end to the pandemic – but with only 75% of the eligible population fully vaccinated, experts warn we have a long way to go.

“The number of unvaccinated people remains stubbornly high,” said Dr. Brian Conway, medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Center. “At about 18% of the population, they fuel epidemics, they fuel transmission.

Conway said unvaccinated people continue to catch COVID-19 and spread it to others, including some who have received both vaccines, which he attributes in part to the highly contagious Delta variant.

“Against the Delta variant, the current vaccine regimen is somewhat less effective than it has been shown to be against the original variant,” he said. “But it’s still very effective, probably around 80%.”

Figures from the province show a growing number of fully immune British Columbians are contracting COVID-19 and ending up in hospital.

The latest update released on Friday shows that the unvaccinated accounted for 71.3% of identified cases from August 19 to 25, while those fully vaccinated made up 18%. From August 11 to 17, the unvaccinated accounted for 71 percent and the fully dosed accounted for 13 percent.

Regarding hospitalizations, between August 12 and 25, the unvaccinated accounted for 79.3% of patients and the fully vaccinated 14.1% – a slight change from August 10 to 16, when the unvaccinated accounted for 84% and those fully vaccinated accounted for 11 percent.

It’s also important to note that there are many more people in British Columbia who are vaccinated than unvaccinated. According to government figures, the unvaccinated are infected at a rate of 199 per 100,000 people, compared to 24.9 per 100,000 among those who are fully vaccinated.

When British Columbia’s new vaccine passport was announced on Monday, the provincial health worker warned that the risk was “10 times higher if you were not protected by a vaccine.”

“When you are vaccinated, it means you are less likely to get infected (and) if you are infected, you spread the virus for a shorter period of time, you are less likely to pass it on to other people and you are much less likely to have a serious illness that results in hospitalization, ”said Dr. Bonnie Henry.

To combat rising cases, province is implementing local restrictions in interior health region, instituting passport system for vaccines, and reimposing mask mandate for indoor spaces across British Columbia .

“The key to protecting both the unvaccinated and the vaccinated is to get more of the unvaccinated fully vaccinated as quickly as possible,” Conway told CTV News Vancouver. “What is fueling all of these concerns is that our immunization rate among the Canadian population for some inexplicable reason has dropped precipitously.”

He explained that in June, Canada was vaccinating more than 600,000 people every day, but that number has since fallen to less than 100,000 a day.

“We have slowed the vaccination rate to over 80%,” said Conway. “We have to focus a lot of our energy, a lot of our effort on this very, very important goal. “

Conway called the new restrictions a necessary course correction, until vaccine rates can reach levels of 90% or more.

“If we really set this as a high priority, there would be fewer people likely to get infected in the first place,” he said.