Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach said the logistics of the Pfizer- BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is a major concern for rural and remote communities.
The vaccine must be stored and transferred in extremely cold temperatures which is a concern due to the lack of medical resources in rural and remote communities.
Bachrach added his party feels community members in rural and remote communities deserve to be vaccinated in the proper order.
He said the province is grappling with providing the vaccines to rural and remote communities.
“They’ve put a lot of effort in planning the logistics and making sure the people who need the vaccine first get access to it,” he said.
The Moderna vaccine, another leader COVID-19 vaccine, is pending approval from Health Canada and earlier this week the federal government announced rural and remote communities will be given access first to the vaccine.
According to Bachrach the Moderna vaccine is more portable.
He said he hopes as that vaccine becomes available smaller and more remote communities have access to it.
“I do believe it [the vaccine] needs to be up at the top of the list, obviously I’m going to leave that to the public health experts because they have a lot of criteria that they follow to prioritize which vulnerable groups will be at the front of the line,” he said.
On Tuesday (Dec 15), B.C. issued 409 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after it arrived in Canada Sunday night (Dec 14).