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B-C health officials say everyone who is eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination will have access to one before July 1st under the current age-based plan. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the age-based rollout of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines is ahead of schedule. And with 340-thousand doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca expected to arrive by the end of May, the government says essential workers in a wide range of sectors will be eligible for a shot in the coming weeks. B-C has confirmed 622 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the total over 90-thousand since the pandemic began.

To break it down a little more. The B-C government says police officers, grocery workers, teachers and childcare staff are among more than 300-thousandfront-line workers set to receive COVID-19 vaccinations in the coming weeks. They’ll get the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot as part of B-C’s plan to inoculate workers who are most at risk of being infected and potentially passing the illness to others in their communities. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says health authorities will contact specific industries and schools when their workers are selected for the jab.. She says those workers should not try to book appointments through the province’s aged-based vaccine rollout

 

Teachers, firefighters, and postal workers will be getting vaccinated against COVID-19 next in B.C., but bus drivers, lawyers, and ferry workers are noticeably absent from that priority group. In December, the union representing Metro Vancouver bus operators were told they’d be part of Phase 2 in the province’s vaccine rollout plan. But that was December, and the plan has been updated at least twice since. In January, the province announced that it was putting more of a focus on age when it came to when people would be inoculated. That bumped bus drivers out of the second phase. Then, on Thursday, March 18, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced hundreds of thousands of frontline workers would be given priority for the next month’s vaccines. About 320,000 people are among the frontline and vulnerable workers who have been moved up the list to receive the AstraZeneca shot. Nowhere in that list are bus drivers included, and it’s not clear if they are to be considered as part of any of these groups.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says an increase in more transmissible variants of COVID-19 may be threatening progress in containing the spread of infections. Canada has recorded almost 45-hundred cases of so-called variants of concern, and Tam says they’re making up a higher proportion of new cases in parts of the country.

Followed for 40 minutes, a Vancouver woman says a stranger kept walking behind her as she made her way through the streets of the city on Wednesday, so she pulled out her phone to record it. Jamie Coutts was running an errand in the Tinseltown area around 5:30 p.m. when she became aware of the man’s presence. Coutts pulled out her phone and recorded a seven-minute video which she shared online. At one point you can see something in the man’s hand that he ends up tucking into his bag. Eventually, Coutts approaches a group of skateboarders. In the video, you can see the man hesitate and then eventually walk away. Coutts says she stayed with the skateboarders for 15 minutes and contacted Vancouver Police shortly after. Sgt. Steve Addison confirms police are investigating the incident. The man does not speak in the video, and it’s impossible to know what his motivation was. But Coutts says since she posted the video she’s been inundated with messages from other women saying they’ve had similar interactions with a similar man. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the VPD

 

Amy Go says she was saddened by the shootings in Atlanta that left six Asian American women dead, but as an Asian Canadian woman, she wasn’t surprised. Go, the president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, said many Asian Canadian women have experienced hatred or violence in their daily life. The killings in Atlanta follow a wave of recent attacks against Asian Americans and Canadians since the novel coronavirus first arrived in North America. The national council has tracked 931 anti-Asian racist incidents during COVID-19, and Go said the numbers should highlight myths about how Canadians view themselves. Federal Trade Minister Mary Ng, who was born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada when she was seven, said she’s been the victim of discrimination. She said the news of Tuesday’s attack left her feeling “horrified” and she emphasized the need for Canadians to offer support to the Asian Canadian community. saying: “I think the request is that Asian Canadians need all Canadians to stand alongside us, to speak out and to be vocal and to stand against anti-Asian racism and to certainly stand up for us in this fight.”

 

Police say they’ve identified the woman shot inside a social housing building on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside early Wednesday morning. They say 24-year-old Shania Paulson died after being shot inside the Arco Hotel, a single room occupancy building. No arrests have been made and police say the investigation is ongoing. Police believe her attacker fled and they’re asking anyone with information to contact homicide detectives or Crime Stoppers.

 

The B-C government says police officers, grocery workers, teachers and childcare staff are among more than 300-thousand front-line workers set to receive COVID-19 vaccinations in the coming weeks. They’ll get the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot as part of B-C’s plan to inoculate workers who are most at risk of being infected and potentially passing the illness to others in their communities. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says health authorities will contact specific industries and schools when their workers are selected for the jab.. She says those workers should not try to book appointments through the province’s aged-based vaccine rollout.

 

The national advocacy group for patients with blood-clot disorders says there is a greater risk of getting blood clots from COVID-19 than any vaccine. Thrombosis Canada has issued an updated statement on the risk of blood clots today after the European Medicines Agency released its final report on the risk of blood clots after getting the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The agency says there is no evidence of increased risk of blood clots from the vaccine. Also today, 12 countries that suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine resumed giving people the shots. 

 

The discovery of two bodies in a burning home in Richmond early this morning is being treated as a homicide. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the two victims have not yet been identified. Earlier the R-C-M-P said officers were assisting with traffic control around the fire at the home when the bodies were found. I-HIT says investigators also believe a burned S-U-V found in Surrey is believed to be linked to the incident.