Gap between older and younger people getting fully vaccinated wider in B.C. Interior

If you hear B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix talk about the pandemic these days, it's likely he'll bring up a very specific point. 

"Over 50, just about everyone is vaccinated at the same level," said Dix on CBC's The Early Edition last Friday. 

"But under 50, there's significant differences. And it's not just the youngest people."

Numbers provided by the government appear to bear that out. 

In all 87 local health areas (LHAs) in the province, at least 70 per cent of people over the age of 50 have received at least one dose of vaccine. 

But for people between the ages of 18 and 49, the numbers vary wildly. 

In Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria, in nearly every local health area, more than 70 per cent of people between the ages of 18-49 are fully vaccinated, many of them near the same level as people over 50.  

But elsewhere, there are wide gaps: in Cranbrook, just 50 per cent of people 18-49 are fully vaccinated, compared to 80 per cent of people over 50. The largest gap is in Enderby, where just 34 per cent of people 18-49 are fully vaccinated — the lowest in B.C. — despite the fact 70 per cent of people 50 and above have done so. 

Overall, eight of the 10 LHAs showing the biggest difference in the fully vaccinated status of the 18-49 and 50+ age groups are in Interior Health, the epicentre of B.C.'s fourth wave. 

People between 20 and 49 now comprise more than 67 per cent of all new COVID-19 cases in B.C. 

"We've seen the delta variant go through unvaccinated populations very quickly, and that's why we need to keep raising our vaccination levels," said Dix. 

Cases potentially plateauing?

The rolling average of new cases in Interior Health has gone up by more than 1,000 per cent in the last month, with transmission rates in Kelowna higher than any major city in B.C. at any time in the pandemic but has been plateauing somewhat in recent days.

"This is the best time to get vaccinated," said Dr. Silvina Mema, the medical health officer for Interior Health. 

"Fully vaccinated people … are less likely to have symptoms from the disease, less likely to be infected, and less likely to transmit to others."

Dr. Mema said 95 per cent of cases in Interior Health were in people partially or fully unvaccinated, though the province has not updated those numbers for more than three weeks, while every other province west of Atlantic Canada updates them daily. 

Dr. Srinivas Murthy, an infectious disease specialist at B.C. Children's Hospital, said that based on data from other countries with delta variant surges, the province was likely to see fewer hospitalizations and deaths than other waves. 

But he cautioned that in the short term, the increased transmissibility of the delta variant meant the province would have to consider new restrictions. 

"Getting as many as possible to this vaccine is going to get us out of this," he said. 

"We're going to need public health measures in the meantime, but vaccination is the ticket."