Local company in the news!
I found out that AbCellera, a Vancouver company, was involved in making Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody COVID treatment! AbCellera makes a machine that can screen blood looking for useful antibodies.
Press Briefing of 2021-03-02
Data
NOTICE!! Dr. Henry said that they had some problems with their data systems and that there were 254 cases that had not been counted before, so the stats and charts look better than it really is.
From today’s press briefing: +438 cases, including +22 B.1.1.7 and +2 B.1.351 cases, +2 deaths, +4,741 first doses, +2,760 second doses.
Currently 243 in hospital / 63 in ICU, 4679 active cases, 8445 under monitoring, 75255 recovered.
Mostly Dr. Henry spent her time justifying the increase in the interval between the first and second doses.
There were some questions about minor-league hockey. The WHL has been approved to restart play; the BCHL has not. Dr. Henry indicated there were some problems with the BCHL proposal.
Someone asked if, with the case count still being high, she had considered starting Spring Break early. Yes, and it’s still under discussion. One thing she mentioned was that transmission in the school population goes up when school is not in session.
Someone asked if we’d see a loosening of restrictions in long term health care visitations soon. The answer was a very emphatic yes.
Someone asked if the age-based cohorts could choose mRNA instead of AZ. The answer basically was that the age-based cohorts were not going to get AZ, that don’t know how limit supplies will be, and they really want it for the occupation-based track (because it is easier to deploy).
Someone said that there has been some grumbling in First Nations communities about inequity — that some communities got everybody vaccinated, and in others, only the elders were vaccinated. Dr. Henry said that was true, and it was because BC had such a low supply of Moderna (which is what they took to remote communities because its freezer requirements are slightly looser than the Pfizer requirements), that sometimes they just didn’t have enough to vax everybody. That will get rectified, she promised.
Charts
Next
The next briefing will be on Thursday 4 March.