With B.C. seniors over the age of 80 able to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments this week, one week ahead of schedule, the province’s top doctor says its possible that even more people will be able to book their appointments earlier that first expected.

“We’re taking about larger and larger groups of people, so this has been our way to try and ramp it up in a way that is effective and to make sure that people get what they need in terms of access to the clinics and yes, we will be ramping up and increasing the other age groups as soon as we are able to,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said during her press conference on Monday.

“As we are building up momentum, we wanted to start off with trying to make it easier for people as we’re getting our clinics up and running. Many of the clinics now are ones that will be expanding as we go down the age cohorts.”

For now, the province expects its vaccine clinics for the general population to get underway around April 12, beginning with people aged between 75 and 79. Until then, the focus will be on vaccinating people over the age of 80 as well as Indigenous people 65 and over.

Its unclear when people in that general population will be able to start making vaccine appointments.

“Slowing things down would make people confused but speeding things up is, if anything, a more positive thing,” Henry added. “We’re adapting to what we’re getting but as we get into the momentum we want to increase rapidly, and that’s we’re trying to make sure that we’re keeping pace with the vaccine that we are receiving.”

People over the age of 90 have been able to book vaccine appointments since March 8, and several vaccine clinics in the Kamloops area opened yesterday, with more to come next week.

At that same press conference, B.C.’s Health Minister said it was good news that some of the people most at risk were able book vaccine appointments earlier than planned.

“From the start we’ve been guided by our commitment that those who need it most are the highest priorities for all of us. And we will continue to uphold that principle,” Adrian Dix said. “I don’t just think British Columbians support this, I know they do.”

Dix says there are about 105,000 seniors between the age of 80 and 84 who have not yet been vaccinated.

“With our vaccine campaign, we said we’d start with the most vulnerable and those who care for them and them move down though age groups because science and our experience with COVID-19 said that was the right thing to do and that is what we’re doing right now,” he added.

Interior Health’s Interim Director of Clinical Operations, Carla Mantie told NL News says they’re hoping to get people who want a first dose of the vaccine by July, possibly June, if things go according to schedule.

Online Vaccine Booking System ‘A Few Weeks Away’: Dr. Henry

Health officials also say they’re still working to ensure that people are able to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments online, if they so desire.

“The target for that is still unfortunately a few weeks away but we wanted to make sure it works and it works well,” Henry said.

“It has to be interoperable with many other systems and most importantly, from my perspective, is it gets everybody’s information into our provincial immunization registry so that you have a record, we have a record…but also its really importantly as that is our safety monitoring system as well.”

Fraser Health was the only health authority that had that a robust online booking system ready when people began to make appointments on March 8.

“We’re trying to speed things up as best as we can and it will be ready to go once we get into our major cohorts of 70 and above,” added Henry.