Photo: Times Colonist / Darren Stone
About 190,000 health workers had to be vaccinated for COVID-19 under a provincial health order.
British Columbia is sticking to its mandate for a vaccine against COVID-19 for civil servants and health workers, although the federal government has suspended its requirement for two admissions for federally regulated workers and passengers.
British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix said he continued to support both the province’s health order last year, which required all health workers in hospitals, long-term care homes and municipal health centers to be vaccinated, and the council order that made the vaccinations. employment condition for public service employees.
“I would not expect a change in mandates soon,” Dix said in an interview Monday.
Liberal leader in British Columbia Kevin Falcon last week called on the British Columbia government to follow Ottawa’s example of ending vaccine requirements for provincial and health workers.
“British Columbia is not keeping up with the rest of the country in this regard,” Falcon said. “We now have a situation that simply calls for an immediate lifting of the vaccine mandate.”
Falcon said the vaccine requirement exacerbates a critical shortage of health workers who have seen the temporary closure of emergency departments in the island’s rural communities, as well as in northern and domestic health authorities.
About 190,000 health workers – including about 50,000 in long-term care – had to be vaccinated for COVID-19 under a provincial health order. About 99 percent were vaccinated, and the rest lost their jobs because they did not.
The BC Public Services Agency requires its 30,000 employees to be fully vaccinated. As of April 20, 402 employees had either not been vaccinated or refused to disclose their vaccination status, as required by the COVID-19 vaccination policy, and about 150 had lost their jobs.
The agency said on Monday that its vaccination policy remains in place, with almost 99% of employees fully vaccinated. “As the pandemic is not over and its trajectory remains uncertain, British Columbia’s public service believes it is prudent to maintain the vaccination policy.
Falcon said about 2,500 health workers and other public service workers were isolated “at a time when the health system, in the prime minister’s own words, is collapsing and faltering.”
Dix said the federal government seems to want to repeal both vaccine mandates, “but I don’t agree with them.”
The health minister said the problem was not in the mandates, but in COVID-19, which continues to have a profound impact on the health system. He said there is a constant need to protect residents in long-term care and assisted living, as well as patients in emergency care and a larger healthcare system.
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