As the B.C. Government began taking public vaccination appointments on Monday, local vaccination clinics will be opening on March 15th to begin administering doses to the elderly population.
On Monday, Interior Health’s call centre opened to begin taking appointments for those 90 years older and Indigenous Elders over the age of 65. Below is a breakdown of who can call to book their vaccine appointments:
- Monday, March 8th or after:
- Born in 1931 or earlier (90+ years old)
- Indigenous people born 1956 or later (65+ years old)
- Monday, March 15th or after:
- Born in 1936 or earlier (85+ years old)
- Monday, March 22nd or after:
- Born in 1941 or earlier (80+ years old)
Those eligible to book their COVID-19 vaccination appointment can do so by phoning 1-877-740-7747 between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. According to Adrian Dix, B.C. Minister of Health, there were a total of 1.7-million calls made by people trying to book an appointment. As of Monday, Dix said only 55,000 people in B.C. would be eligible to book their appointments this week before the opening up on March 15th to those 85 or older.
“It’s really important, in order to allow those over 90 to get their appointments, that we only call when our age group becomes open for calling,” explained Dix. “It’s particularly important because it allows our fellow citizens, particularly our elders, to get their appointments booked.”
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Dix said that nearly 15,000 appointments were booked on the first day through the high volume of calls, with about 2,500 bookings in Interior Health.
In the East Kootenay region, there will be 10 different vaccination clinics opening up to those who booked appointments. They should all be operational as of March 15th to begin vaccinating the public and those that phoned and scheduled their appointment. The list of local clinics is below:
- Cranbrook
- Cranbrook Curling Centre – 1777 2nd St. North
- Kimberley
- Centennial Hall – 100 4th Ave.
- Fernie
- Elk Valley Hospital Education Room – 1505 5 Ave.
- Sparwood
- Sparwood Health Centre – 570 Pine Ave.
- Elkford
- Elkford Health Centre – 212 Alpine Way
- Invermere
- Invermere Catholic Church – 712 12th Ave.
- Akisqnuk Community Centre – 3050 HW-93
- Shuswap Band Office – 4846 Althamer Road
- Golden
- Golden Curling Club – 1412 9th St. South
- Creston
- Creston Valley Hospital-ED room A – 312 15th Ave. North
All of those calling to book their vaccination appointment must provide personal information in order to secure the booking. That includes your legal name, date of birth, postal code, personal health number (PHN), and current contact information such as a phone number and email address.
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To date, 333,327 doses of a #COVID19 vaccine have been administered in BC, 86,925 of which are second doses.
— Adrian Dix (@adriandix) March 9, 2021
At the close of call centres today their were 14,949 #COVID19 vaccines booked.
VIHA – 2,395
FHA – 8,722
IHA – 2,456
VCHA – 369
NHA – 1,007— Adrian Dix (@adriandix) March 9, 2021