Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has dropped the requirement for private regulated health professionals to be vaccinated.
On Thursday, September 15, 2022, a news release by the BC Government says dentists, opticians and naturopathic doctors are among some of the regulated health professionals that are not required to be “vaccinated” against Covid-19 to continue working.
Employees for health authorities, agencies funded by health authorities and long-term care and assisted-living facilities, unfortunately are still required to be “fully vaccinated” (2 injections), now called “primary series” of Covid vaccine.
“Given the high rates of vaccination in these professions, and the current state of the pandemic, the PHO has decided to not require private, regulated health professionals to be vaccinated at this time,” Henry said in a statement released on Thursday.
This news comes after the World Health Organization declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is in sight.
Henry issued an order in March 2022 requiring all health professionals working in both private and public settings to disclose the private medical records to their regulatory body whether or not they have received Covid shots.
Strangely, B.C. Public Services is also still requiring employees and contractors to be “vaccinated” with a minimum of 2 shots, even if they are working from home or outdoors.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Heath reported 16 deaths, which is being counted as all cause mortality, this includes any death which there was a positive Covid-19 test even if the cause of death was not because of illness form Covid-19.
On September 10, there were 23 patients in intensive care and 314 patients with COVID-19 who were hospitalised (but they may not have been there because of COVID-19).
The majority of deaths reported are elderly people, according to data released by the BC CDC, 7-Day Average Count of COVID-19 Hospitalizations, Critical Care Admissions, and Deaths by age groups. Which the report was generated on September 14, 2022.
The graph provided by BC CDC suggests severe illness or death for younger people is lower, especially for kids where is appears severe illness or death are very rare outcomes.
Since March 2020, there have been 4216 deaths in British Columbia of people testing positive for Covid-19 but may not be because of COVID-19, which is less than the number of drug overdose deaths, the other major issue in the province.
