Patients and doctors: What you should know about third dose of COVID-19 vaccine

Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry has announced that close to 15,000 British Columbians who are severely immunocompromised will be contacted to advise them they can receive a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine at any BC vaccine clinic.  

If patients have the conditions listed below, and have not received a call by September 17, they are asked to contact their physician or other health care provider who can provide them with an attestation form.

Patients are eligible if they:

• Have had a solid organ transplant
• Have received treatment for lymphoma or a malignant hematological condition (like myeloma or leukemia) in January 2021 or later
• Have received treatment with any anti-CD20 agents (such as rituximab, ocrelizumab, ofatumumab, obinutuzumab, ibritumomab or tositumomab) in January 2020 or later
• Have been treated on B-cell depleting agents (such as epratuzumab, MEDI-551, belimumab, BR3-Fc, AMG-623, Atacicept, anti-BR3 or alemtuzumab) in January 2020 or later
• Have combined immune deficiencies affecting T-cells, immune dysregulation or type 1 interferon defects
• Have had bone marrow or stem cell transplant in September 2019 or later, or are still taking immunosuppressant medications related to transplant

Dr Henry has said she may extend an invitation for a third dose to others who may benefit from third dose of the vaccine to complete the initial vaccine series to help these individuals create antibodies to protect them from COVID-19. She noted that government is awaiting more data from the national immunization committee and expects to have more announcements in the near future.

For more information, go to the BC Government site: How to get vaccinated for COVID-19 - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca) or the BCCDC site: Vaccine Considerations and Registration and Eligibility pages.