Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) said it expects to complete the mass vaccination of Whistler by April.18.
While welcoming the news of the community vaccination plan, Whistler Health Care Centre's medical director Dr. Fern von der Porten cautioned people not to let their guard down post-jab.
“If we want to get a handle on [COVID-19] in Whistler we need to get the vaccine into as many people as we can and those people, vaccinated or not, they still need to maintain social distancing, wear a mask, not gather and wash their hands,” she said.
Von der Porten explained that it takes at least two weeks for antibodies from the vaccine to kick in and boost immunity to the coronavirus. In March, as vaccines began to be offered to some segments of Whistler’s population, Von der Porten said a spike in cases took place as vaccinated people stopped practising safe behaviours known to interrupt the spread of COVID-19.
“We all have to do the hard work,” she said. “You are not getting antibodies for a couple of weeks, so don’t celebrate. Do celebrate that you are on your way to safety from [COVID-19].”
Started on April 12 in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers, the immunization program aims to vaccinate as many local residents and workers aged 18 and older as possible. VCH is also planning for an additional clinic day later this month for eligible Whistler adults who are currently isolating.
“The B.C. provincial vaccination program is nimble, and is adapting to a complex set of circumstances. We are doing our best to match our limited vaccine supply with the need to vaccinate specific communities and groups of people,” explained a VCH spokesperson in an email.
The news comes as the resort continues to deal with a growing COVID-19 caseload. According to VCH’s latest data, Whistler recorded 1,505 lab-confirmed cases between Jan. 1 and April 5, compared to just 271 cases in all of 2020. (Pique requested updated case count numbers from VCH this week but did not receive them by press time.) Currently the Howe Sound health region, which includes Whistler, has the highest rate of COVID-19 transmission of any local health area in B.C., with 337 new cases between April 3 and 10, the most recent available figures. There were 410 cases recorded the week prior, the highest transmission rate of any local health area in B.C., and "the majority" of those cases in Whistler, VCH said.
Of particular concern is the proportion of P1 variant cases: As of March 30, there were 197 cases of the variant recorded in Whistler, with health officials estimating that the variant circulation peaked the week of March 22. No current variant numbers are available from VCH.
A recent non-peer-reviewed study on medrxiv.org found that the P1 variant could transmit about 2.6 times faster than more dominant strains.
“We are focusing on where the transmission is at the highest, and [vaccinations] will spread out from there over the province,” said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry in her April 12 media briefing on the launch of the resort’s community-wide vaccine program.
“We know the people who are impacted the most are people working in hotels, in restaurants, on the ski hill … It is about the people who live and work in Whistler and the outbreak that is continuing despite the many, many measures we have taken in that community.”
Whistler residents and workers ages 18 and up are eligible to receive a vaccine at the Whistler Conference Centre, by appointment, at vchcovid19vaccine.com. The vaccination clinic is open from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Anyone with questions about their eligibility can email vaccinevariancerequests@whistler.com.
Community effort
Stressing that the decision was a public-health response, Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton said it was locals’ “extremely respectful and compelling” lobbying of the province that helped make the case for mass vaccination here.
“From the moment Whistler Blackcomb was closed, there were a lot of people in my ear making the case that we’ll need more than the existing supports,” he said. “This is such a hard time to maintain civility and our community did an unbelievable job at that. So I think we felt empowered, encouraged and focused in our efforts.”
Whistler has experienced three successive waves of the virus throughout the pandemic, VCH said, with the majority of cases hitting the 20- to 39-year-old age group, which led to the immunization of a significant percentage of local workers living in staff accommodation at the end of March. Those employees received the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has since been suspended in B.C. for those under 55 as new data emerged over a higher risk of blood clotting than originally thought, particularly in women. Even still, the risk remains low: the World Health Organization says blood-clotting occurs in just one of every 1 million doses administered, while a report from Germany suggests the numbers could be closer to one in 100,000.
VCH said it has yet to be decided if those who have already received the AstraZeneca vaccine will get a second dose or not. The current immunization program is utilizing both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
With community immunization ongoing, Crompton countered a notion that has persisted outside of Whistler that it was the resort bungling its COVID-19 response that led to the vaccination program.
“This is a very real public health concern and it requires a dramatic response. I think it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how this virus is moving around this community to suggest that people partied and the virus spread,” he said. “This community has worked so hard to respond well to COVID and like everyone else, we haven’t been perfect in how we’ve done that but I couldn’t be more impressed with this community.”
Sunday’s mass vaccination announcement came as welcome news for local frontline workers who had yet to be immunized despite the higher risk. April Lowe, president of the Sea to Sky Teachers Union, wrote in an email the group was “thrilled” that Whistler teachers would be getting the vaccine.
“This will make us all feel safer,” she added. “We are hopeful that our teachers in Pemberton and Squamish are not far behind. We all live and work in this corridor and while divided by community, we are all part of School District 48.”
Firefighters, many of whom were impacted by a COVID-19 exposure, started to be vaccinated April 6, with the remainder slated to receive their first dose in the coming days.
Tourism outlook
As one of Canada’s COVID-19 hotspots, Whistler has also been the focus of a number of recent headlines in the national and international press, partly a consequence of the community’s outsized reputation, said Tourism Whistler (TW) president and CEO Barrett Fisher.
“We know Whistler is a prominent world-class destination, and both our challenges and our success often attract international media attention,” she said. “But to put it into perspective, COVID is a global crisis and is impacting all destinations, all businesses, all employees and all citizens. I think from that perspective, Whistler can hold its head high. We had strong protocols in place and we know that tourism in itself is not what spread COVID. Having proper business protocols in place in fact limits the spread of COVID, but it’s the behaviours outside of that. It’s the social gatherings where people are letting down their guard and choosing not to follow protocols.
"We’ve got to a point in the rollout of COVID where people have gotten tired and have let their guards down," she added. "It was certainly disheartening to hear of the increased cases in Whistler, but it’s not unique to Whistler. We’re seeing it all over and I think people will recognize the vaccine will put a lot of this to rest and give everyone a fresh start and the ability to build back.”
Fisher went on to say that TW’s messaging wouldn’t shift in the short term with the news of Whistler’s mass vaccination, but the destination marketing organization (DMO) is looking ahead to this summer and beyond depending on how the COVID-19 situation pans out.
“All things going to plan with vaccinations, we’re anticipating that we’ll roll out our marketing efforts and we’ll see our visitation in the tiers of British Columbia and our regional markets first, and then moving to interprovincial markets, such as Alberta and potentially Ontario, a little bit longer term, depending on their situation there,” she said.
Looking to the global market, Fisher said TW is in discussions with other provincial destination organizations to gain a better understanding of what public-health benchmarks government officials are hoping to hit before turning the tourism tap back on.
“What ideally are the triggers that are going to give us a sense of confidence moving forward? It’s very difficult [to pin down], but I think there are a lot of indicators right now that are very positive,” Fisher said, noting that DMOs don’t expect the Canada-U.S. border to open until this fall, at the earliest.
In terms of hotel room-night bookings, Whistler was at between 20- to 25-per-cent occupancy in the month of March, Fisher said, a ratio that is expected to dip below 10 per cent for the month of April once numbers are finalized.
- with a file from Clare Ogilvie.
This story has been updated since publication, for clarification, and to update the dates of the vaccination program.
