With nearly 60,000 people already vaccinated with one of the Health Canada approved COVID-19 vaccines in BC, many might be wondering when they will be up next for vaccination.
Jasmine Mah, Web Content Developer at Omni Calculator has helped develop a Vaccine Queue Calculator based on the National Guidelines Priority List.
“In Canada, there’s a lot of information and a lot of uncertainty so we decided to compile all information available and make it into something people can understand really easily,” explained Mah.
The calculator takes age, profession, health conditions and risk factors into account and then provides the minimum and the maximum number of people in front of you.
It also shows a range of dates you might have to wait till you get your shot.
“So basically you just enter your information and get an estimate of where you are in the line,” said Mah, “we’re already seeing some change in provincial and national guidelines.”
BC’s guidelines had one notable difference from the national guidelines, according to Mah.
“For BC the big difference was that the national guidelines tell you that anyone aged 70 and older is going to be in stage one, however, in the BC guidelines it says you have to be 80 years and older.”
Mah explained that while the calculator is based on national predictions, it is also based on the best-case scenario and dependant on all the vaccines arriving on time and everything following schedule.
The calculator was created with the hopes that Canadians realize that the pandemic isn’t over just yet and we still must stay patient and safe.
“We saw at the end of 2020 that people assumed that since the vaccine arrived, they thought the pandemic was over but in reality, we have a long way to go,” she noted.
The BCCDC website lists the following as the first groups to get vaccinated between December and February:
- Residents, staff and essential visitors to long-term care and assisted-living residences.
- Individuals in hospital or community awaiting a long term care placement
- Health care workers providing care for COVID-19 patients in settings like Intensive Care Units, emergency departments, medical/surgical units and paramedics.
- Remote and isolated First Nations communities.
For more information on BC’s Vaccine Rollout plan, click here.