The first BC communities to target mass vaccination of COVID-19 show a significant reduction in new infections after three weeks of immune response, data released by health officials on Thursday shows.
The BC Center for Disease Control is tracking what officials call “breakthrough cases” where people test positive after a vaccine or two doses. Provincially, from December 27 to May 1, 98.1 percent of new cases will occur in people who have been vaccinated for less than three weeks or who have not received the vaccine. Three weeks or more after a first shot, 1.7 percent of people test positive, and a week after a second dose, infections have dropped to 0.2 percent of the total.
Similar results are found for health workers in long-term care or assisted living facilities and vaccinated seniors aged 70 and over living in their communities.
As high-risk communities and the province’s age-based vaccination program accelerate, the overall infection rate of BC has steadily declined in recent weeks.
7-day moving average of total BC cases through May 10th # COVID19BC pic.twitter.com/yCxZsfdEeU
– Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc) May 13, 2021
“We know that even after two doses, all of the vaccines we have are not 100 percent effective, but they absolutely reduce your risk of infection and, more importantly, reduce the risk of spreading it to others and reduce your risk of getting infected to become hospital, to need intensive care or to die, “Henry said at the meeting on Thursday.
BC recorded 587 new confirmed COVID-19 infections in the 24 hours to May 13, similar to the daily cases last week. There are 413 people in the hospital, up from 423 on Wednesday and 131 in intensive care. There have been five additional deaths in the past 24 hours, totaling 1,632 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began.
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