As of September 7th, 92% of those in ICU due to COVID-19 in BC were not fully vaccinated, said Health Minister Adrian Dix.
On Tuesday, Minister Dix shared the vaccination status of COVID-19 critical care patients on Twitter.
Thursday morning, Dix called a last minute media availability today to address the numbers of unvaccianted British Columbians in the ICU.
At the conference, Dix said unvaccinated people make up 14.7% of BC’s population and account for 111 out of 133 (83.4%) of people in ICU’s.
Ten ICU patients have one shot and nine are fully-vaccinated.
Dix said that of the over 100 people that are in the ICU in BC hospitals, no one aged under 50 years old is fully-vaccinated.
Health minister Dix got heated over unvaccinated British Columbians at the press conference, calling on them to “trust the science.”
“There is nothing heroic or altruistic in attracting [COVID-19]’s infectious aim. Where there is doubt, we turn to fact,” said Dix.
“Going up against this virus in our daily lives, unvaccinated, only helps the virus. People who are unvaccinated are more than likely to end up in the ICU.”
Dix said he hoped this was a wake up call for those who are unvaccinated to stop delaying vaccination.
The call to vaccinate more arms in BC comes amidst health officials announcing further details regarding the BC Vaccine Card.
Dix said that over 1.1 million people have already registered for their proof of vaccination which will allow them to participate in certain discretionary activities.
So far, 77.8% of eligible British Columbians are fully-vaccinated.
As of this publication, there are 5,550 active COVID-19 cases in the province with 485 of those cases being in the Island Health region.
