on tuesday, the province reported 150 new covid-19 cases with about two-thirds of these, or 95 cases, in interior health. that’s an uptick from 112 cases on thursday and just under 100 each on friday, saturday and sunday.
under the new vaccination push, drop-in clinics, mobile clinics, and pop-up clinics at community events will be set up in dozens of communities across the province. people who want to get vaccinated will be able to go to walk in and get their first or second shots without an appointment. the requirement for there to be 56 days between the two shots has now been lowered to 49 days.
while some jurisdictions are seeing upticks in vaccination rates after deciding to require proof of vaccination for travel by train or for entry to bars, gyms and restaurants, henry said vaccination in b.c. would continue to be voluntary and focused on giving “everybody all of the opportunities to make that choice.”
she did, however, hint at the possibility of escalating tactics.
“it is a choice to be immunized, but there are consequences for people who are not immunized and that’s going to be more important for us as we head into the fall, as we know this virus will increase and we’re likely to see other respiratory viruses,” said henry. “we’ll be looking at the measures that we need to put in place to protect people, particularly those who are most vulnerable.”