Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said her office is working closely with the RCMP and Department of National Defence in an effort to safely deliver COVID-19 vaccine free of outside interference.
“There has been a concerted effort to try and interrupt the cold chain, for example, and sabotage immunization programs,” said Henry Thursday.
“We all need to take appropriate precautions to make sure it’s safe and it’s not tampered with.”
Henry did not elaborate on where threats to the vaccine’s logistical chain came from, but she said her team is acting on advice from the federal government and in consultation with other countries.
“It’s a comfort to know we’ll be talking to each other,” said Henry of the relationship with the RCMP and DND. “It’s going to be a very complex operation over the next few months.”
Canada was the third country in the world to green-light the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week, setting up the country for an initial wave of vaccinations next week.
Of the 14 centralized vaccination sites selected across Canada by a multi-jurisdictional task force, two are in B.C. — one in Fraser Health and one in Vancouver Coastal Health.
But just where those locations are is not clear, and Henry indicated that information was being kept under wraps to safeguard the vaccine’s delivery, 4,000 doses of which are expected next week.
Canada is set to receive 249,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from European sources by the end of December. Officials expect a further four million doses by March and retain the option to purchase 56 million more.
