The province is getting ready to face the next COVID-19 variant called Kraken, which has arrived in B.C., and that begs the question “How ready are Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows?”
Health Minister Adrian Dix announced earlier this month that the province would reactivate its COVID-19 emergency operations centres, for an oncoming wave of respiratory illnesses.
The number of people in hospital has been rising, as the province faces the “tripledemic” of COVID, a bad flu season, and RSV, another respiratory disease that usually infects children.
The Kraken is officially known as Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, and has arrived in B.C. with 24 cases detected as of Friday’s reports.
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There were some signs the pressure on the health system was easing this week, but Dix said the hospitals are still historically busy, with more than 10,000 people receiving hospital care, which is near the system’s capacity.
Authorities have been pushing more British Columbians to get vaccinated, both with a fourth, bivalent shot against COVID, as well as against the flu.
Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows seniors, among those most vulnerable to COVID-19 and the flu, have been vaccinated at a fairly high rate.
As of Jan. 8, 74 per cent of those aged 70 and older have received four doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the cities, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). Eighty-seven per cent have received three doses.
Among those 50 and over, 54 per cent have received all four doses.
However, very few young children have received vaccinations against COVID-19. Just 16 per cent of children from newborn to four years old have received their first shot, and only eight per cent aged four and under have received two shots.
Among five to 11 year olds, only 15 per cent have been given three vaccinations.
The pace of new vaccinations continued to slow down. While more than 1.6 million British Columbians – approximately 32 per cent of the population – have received a fourth dose of at least one vaccine, just 22,002 got vaccinated in the week leading up to Dec. 31.
– With files from Langley Advance Times
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