BC’s Vaccine Card no longer required as of Friday

More COVID-19 health measures are being dropped in the province.

The BC Vaccine Card won’t be needed as of Friday (April 8th), and businesses will transition from a COVID-19 safety plan, to a communicable disease plan.

Vaccine requirements for post secondary students will also be dropped in the province.

“But we do know that many businesses are looking at their own clientele, and some will continue to require this,” said Dr Bonnie Henry.

A fourth dose of a vaccine will be offered in the spring to people in long term care homes, people aged 70 and older, those who are clinically extremely vulnerable, and Indigenous people aged 55 and older.

“Today (Tuesday) we’re announcing that looking at this data, we are going to be offering a spring booster for our elders and seniors in British Columbia, as the people being most at risk.”

Henry added that getting a booster dose becomes more important the older you get.

“We see it as incredibly important as you get older, and people over the age of 70. It does give good, strong protection, but we’re seeing some waning of that protection in the last few weeks, and particularly in people over the age of 80.”

Those groups will start to see their invitations for another booster dose in the coming weeks.

Daily COVID-19 reports will be moving to a weekly format, but will have more detailed information.

Deaths will be reported in a more automated way, but it was noted that the numbers will jump as a result at the beginning.

Health officials expect to see a rise in transmission over the next few months, with modelling that anticipates around a 10%-20% increase in transmission nearing the end of May.

“We know that we are likely to see a slight increase over time in the next month to two months, and then a gradual decreasing again if we continue to do the things that we’re doing.”

As far as the dominant strain, three different variants of the Omicron strain have taken over in BC.