A week’s worth of AstraZeneca vaccine appointments were completely booked at the Walmart pharmacy in Kamloops, a couple of hours after a social media post by a third party.
A verified Twitter account known as Vaccine Hunters Canada shared a web link that allowed people aged 40 and older to book an appointment between today and May 5. Within two-and-a-half hours of that tweet, all of the appointments had been booked.
This comes despite the BC Pharmacy Association website saying no pharmacies are taking new appointments. The association oversees the distribution of vaccines to pharmacies in the province.
According to Vaccine Hunters Canada frequently asked questions page, it is run by a group of volunteers who use crowdsourcing and personal tips to find and share information of vaccine clinics.
Speaking during her COVID-19 briefing, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says in cases where there hasn’t been full uptake of the vaccine, AstraZeneca doses have been transferred to pharmacies where there would be more demand.
Henry was also asked by NL News today if information about vaccine availability at B.C. pharmacies should be better communicated to people rather it be simply on social media.
“There’s a whole lot of factors that went into how much vaccine went where. But then once it goes out into the pharmacies, we lose a little bit of line of sight. Because there is a delay for when it gets entered into our immunization system. Different pharmacies have different ways of notifying people for when they have vaccine,” she says.
“None of this is simple. We’re talking about 600-and-some pharmacies around the province. All of them have slightly different ways of doing things.”
Health Minister Adrian Dix says the province has about 10,000 doses of AstraZeneca that have not been administered yet with more doses to arrive by the summer. So far, Dix says about 180,000 AstraZeneca doses have been administered at pharmacies, as of today.
Henry also reiterates that every person in B.C. who is 18 and older will have a chance to get a first vaccine doses by the end of June, or within eight weeks.
