Central Okanagan parents are being urged to get themselves and their eligible children fully vaccinated ahead of the upcoming academic year.
Interior Health sent a letter to parents of school-aged children on Tuesday, August 3, encouraging them to get vaccinated. The health authority said getting vaccinated is the best way we can protect each other against the variants and ensure they canât mutate and spread.
âThis is the perfect time to get vaccinated if families didnât get their kids vaccinated before. If they get the first dose this week and get their second dose 28 days later, they will be vaccinated by the time school starts,â said Dr. Silvina Mema in an interview with Âé¶čAV.
The letter comes after the provincial government declared a COVID-19 outbreak for the Central Okanagan region on Wednesday, July 28. It also comes after the BC Centre for Disease Control reported that the Delta variant accounts for a majority of new COVID-19 cases in the Interior Health region. Eighty-nine per cent of new COVID-19 cases in the Interior were the Delta variant.
âThe Delta variant is a concern, and weâve seen increased activity among the unvaccinated. We want kids to go back to normal in school and enjoy a full learning experience like being able to attend sports and music lessons, but they canât do that if cases arise among unvaccinated people,â said Mema.
Anybody born in 2009 or earlier can get vaccinated, said Mema, and an email clarifying this will be sent to parents later today (Aug. 3). Mema encourages parents to take advantage of the multiple drop-in vaccination clinics that will be happening in Âé¶čAV and West Âé¶čAV.
Here is a list of drop-in vaccination clinics in Âé¶čAV and West Âé¶čAV:
âąTrinity Hall, 1905 Springfield Road, Âé¶čAV: Monday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Thursday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
âąRutland Secondary School gymnasium, 705 Rutland Road North, Âé¶čAV: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
âąWestbank Lionâs Community Centre, 2466 Main Street, West Âé¶čAV: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
READ MORE: Delta variant accounts for majority of new COVID-19 cases in the Interior
READ MORE: BREAKING: Mask mandate returns to Central Okanagan, COVID-19 outbreak declared
paula.tran@kelownacapnews.com
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