The BC Teachers’ Federation (BTCF) is calling on the BC government to implement in-school vaccination clinics.
At a press conference on Thursday, Premier Horgan announced that 12 to 17 year olds will be able to get vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.
For someone with an appointment, and they have a child who is 12 or older, that child can go with the parent and get a shot at the same time.
But the BCTF said it’s unclear why there aren’t in-school vaccination clinics, especially with the access to resources schools tend to bolster.
“Reducing barriers is essential to the success of BC’s vaccination program. We’ve seen the province do it with pop-up clinics in high-transmission neighbourhoods, so it’s unclear to us why they are not extending that logic to their approach to vaccinating students,” said Teri Mooring, BCTF President.
“Schools regularly coordinate parental consent forms, schools have gyms and cafeterias that could be used, and, most importantly, the students are already there. Nobody has to take time off school or work and make the trip to a community clinic if we bring the vaccines to them.”
Approximately half of all students aged 12 to 18 in BC reside in the Fraser Health region, where the highest number of school exposure notices are issued.
But Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Thursday that BC would be extending the hours of clinics to weekends and after-school.
“It takes a lot of resources to go into every single school in a very short period of time,” Henry said.
Registration is now open for kids 12 to 17 and can register online.
