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Urban-rural divide in COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates in healthcare workers in British Columbia, Canada
Annalee Yassi1, Stephen Barker2, Karen Lockhart2, Deanne Taylor3, Devin Harris4, Harsh Hundal3, Jennifer M Grant5, Arnold Ikedichi Okpan1, Sue Pollock6, Stacy Sprague7, Chad Kim Sing8
1 School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia; Medical Practitioners Occupational Safety and Health (mPOSH), Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2 School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
3 Interior Health, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
4 Interior Health, Kelowna, British Columbia; Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
5 Medical Practitioners Occupational Safety and Health (mPOSH), Vancouver Coastal Health; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Vancouver Coastal Health; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
6 School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Interior Health, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
7 Employee Safety, Health and Wellness, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
8 Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia; Medicine, Quality and Safety, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Correspondence Address:
MD Annalee Yassi
School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia; Medical Practitioners Occupational Safety and Health (mPOSH), Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/cjrm.cjrm_24_22
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Introduction: Healthcare workers (HCWs) play a critical role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Early in the pandemic, urban centres were hit hardest globally; rural areas gradually became more impacted. We compared COVID-19 infection and vaccine uptake in HCWs living in urban versus rural locations within, and between, two health regions in British Columbia (BC), Canada. We also analysed the impact of a vaccine mandate for HCWs.
Methods: We tracked laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, positivity rates and vaccine uptake in all 29,021 HCWs in Interior Health (IH) and all 24,634 HCWs in Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), by occupation, age and home location, comparing to the general population in that region. We then evaluated the impact of infection rates as well as the mandate on vaccination uptake.
Results: While we found an association between vaccine uptake by HCWs and HCW COVID-19 rates in the preceding 2-week period, the higher rates of COVID-19 infection in some occupational groups did not lead to increased vaccination in these groups. By 27 October 2021, the date that unvaccinated HCWs were prohibited from providing healthcare, only 1.6% in VCH compared with 6.5% in IH remained unvaccinated. Rural workers in both areas had significantly higher unvaccinated rates compared with urban dwellers. Over 1800 workers, comprising 6.7% of rural HCWs and 3.6% of urban HCWs, remained unvaccinated and set to be terminated from their employment. While the mandate prompted a significant increase in uptake of second doses, the impact on the unvaccinated was less clear.
Conclusions: As rural areas often suffer from under-staffing, loss of HCWs could have serious impacts on healthcare provision as well as on the livelihoods of unvaccinated HCWs. Greater efforts are needed to understand how to better address the drivers of rural-related vaccine hesitancy.
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