Ineligible people got AstraZeneca shots at Fraser Health pop-up site

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A pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic that appeared in Coquitlam on Tuesday gave doses of AstraZeneca to young people who did not live in high-transmission neighbourhoods, says health minister Adrian Dix.

“The intention of these clinics was to focus on the areas where we are seeing high transmission of COVID-19,” he said. “Some people outside those areas did get immunized, in the Coquitlam pop-up.”

At around noon on Tuesday, Fraser Health announced it would immediately open two pop-up vaccination sites — at the Poirier Forum in Coquitlam and Cloverdale Recreation Centre — for people aged 30 and over who lived in one of 10 high-transmission neighbourhoods in the health region.

Six of these neighbourhoods are in Surrey-East Newton, Fleetwood, North Surrey, Panorama, West Newton and Whalley — but also include Port Coquitlam, South Langley Township, North Delta, and West Abbotsford.

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The sites opened at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday and closed at 7 p.m., leading to a large lineup at the Coquitlam site — starting even before Fraser Health made its public announcement.

On Wednesday, another pop-up was opened at the Newton Athletic Park in Surrey for anyone aged over 18, without any public notice on the health authority’s website.

This site also experienced a long lineup that ended after a heated exchange with health authority staff when the vaccine ran out.

“We could have done better in terms of communication, and we acknowledge that,” said Dix. “On the communications, absolutely we’re going to be better.”

He said that despite the lineups, miscommunication and vaccinations for ineligible people, 4,100 doses had been administered on Tuesday.

“On the ground, the program was successful in that a lot of people were immunized. Some people that weren’t qualified for clinics did get immunized. But the overwhelming share of people that we’re targeting to get immunized were immunized,” Dix said.

He said it was unlikely there would be any more pop-up clinics as any remaining doses of AstraZeneca would be used by the pharmacy program for people aged 40 and over.

B.C. Liberal health critic Renee Merrifield said people were “frustrated about last-minute, poorly announced, pop-up clinics and inconsistent eligibility requirements that are not being widely enforced.

“They are also struggling with conflicting instructions around registering for second doses. All this, while many essential workers still don’t know when they will be vaccinated.”

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The province is rolling out an age-based program offering the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and also offers the AstraZeneca vaccine for anyone aged 40 and older at some pharmacies. The age-based program is open to people aged 58 and over as of Thursday.

There were 841 cases of COVID-19 and five deaths reported on Wednesday. There are now 8,009 active cases of the disease in B.C., of which 515 are being treated in hospital — including 171 in intensive care. So far, 1,576 people have died from COVID-19 in B.C, including two under the age of two.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said 1,615,684 people in B.C. had received one of the three available vaccines. Doses of a fourth Health Canada-approved vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is expected to arrive next week and only requires one dose.

Most new cases are appearing in the Fraser Health region — that has 10 of B.C.’s 16 high-transmission neighbourhoods. There are five in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (Squamish, Kensington, Britannia Beach, Pincecrest Estates and D’Arcy) and one in Northern Health (Dawson Creek).

Ministry of Health and Fraser Health were not able to confirm whether the pop-ups would be open on Thursday.

Anyone over 16 who lives or works in Washington is eligible for a shot, according to the Washington State Department for Health. Recipients do not need a social security number or other documents to show immigration status, but the department’s website says they may be asked at state-run mass vaccination sites to show identification like a driver’s licence, a utility bill, or a voucher from an employer, church or a school.

— with a file from Matt Robinson

dcarrigg@postmedia.com