Northern B.C. parents face limited vaccine appointment availability before the holidays

Erin Barker was overjoyed when she finally got to sign her kids up forCOVID-19 vaccine appointments.

"I cried. I was in Value Village and I was setting them up and I cried out of relief," the mother of two in Prince George, B.C. said.

As a high school teacher with elderly parents and two children under twelve, Barker said navigating the pandemic safely has been a major stress and knowing her kids will soon have an added layer of protection from catching and spreading COVID-19 has her overjoyed.

But she's worried about the limited availability of vaccine appointment times in Prince George, a city serving more than 80,000 people.

As of Nov. 30, there are just four clinic dates available for kids age five to 11 in the community prior to theChristmas holidays: Monday, Dec. 6 and 13, and Tuesday, Dec. 7 and 14, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

After that, the next appointment date is Dec. 23.

"This is a big issue for working parents. I'm expected to take time off work now, I'm expected to take my children out of schoolwhich, as a teacher, I have issues with," Barker said. "And some parents cannot afford to do that."

The availability of vaccine appointments for kids varies from city to city in northern B.C., which is still dealing with the highest COVID-19 positivity rates in the province.

Parents in Prince Rupert, for example, cannot make an appointment for their kids. Instead, they are being directed to six days of drop-in clinics exclusively for five-to 11-year-olds, while in Fort St. John children can get their shots at regular community clinics when vaccines are being distributed to the general population.

Smaller communities, meanwhile, are still being told to wait to find out when vaccines will be available in their community.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said Tuesday that flooding and highway closures in southern B.C. have made it challenging to distribute vaccines as quickly as he would like.

"Vaccines in the north were late arriving and it did and has affected the early appointments," he said, adding that the logistics of properly storing and thawing COVID-19 vaccines made distribution to rural communities even more difficult.

Tanis Hampe, vice presidentof pandemic response for Northern Health, said her team is trying to customize vaccine availability to the expected demand in different regions.

Prince George, she said, is currently distributing a high number of booster doses to the city's senior population, as well as vaccinating kids age 12 and up.That meantexisting clinic times were already fully booked when five- to 11-year-olds became eligible, leading to the setup of special clinic days for their age group.

In contrast, Fort St. Johnis seeing lower interest for appointments in all age groups, which meanschildren willbe vaccinated on the same dates as other age groups.

"Right now, we're still trying to measure demand," Hampe said. "We're going to be continuously looking at the clinic schedules, the demand and making things available for people in the north."

Hampe also said as of Tuesday afternoon, there arestill many appointmenttimes for kids available in northern cities where clinics have been set up.

"We'll be able to offer the vaccine to everybody who wants it," she said.

For her part, Barker said that even though it will be a challenge to get time off work and get both kids out of school for their appointments next week, she is still grateful to know they will be at least partially vaccinated before the holidays.

"Science has given us this gift, and we have hope that we can be with our families again," she said.