OTTAWA -- Canada will be receiving up to 200,000 more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next week and potentially up to 168,000 Moderna vaccine doses by the end of December. This means thousands more Canadians will be vaccinated before the end of the year.
“Canada has secured our second agreement for early doses of COVID-19 vaccines,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, announcing that a second vaccine could be available for use in this country within days.
The federal government has updated its contract with Moderna, to secure delivery of an initial tranche of doses of its vaccine candidate within 48 hours of Health Canada approval. The first 168,000 doses are part of the 40 million doses that Canada has secured access to.
This news comes on the second day of the largest mass vaccination effort in Canadian history, as more health-care workers and seniors begin receiving their immunizations with the Pfizer shot, which arrived in this country on Sunday and was in the first arms by midday Monday.
Canada made a deal to receive 249,000 Pfizer doses this month, and by next week 230,000 of those doses will have landed. There are currently 14 sites across the provinces that are up and running, receiving the initial doses. Trudeau said Tuesday that by next week the number of places able to handle and administer Pfizer shots will grow to 70, meaning an additional 56 will be added across the country.
“As with the early shipments of the Pfizer vaccine, this moves us even further forward on getting Canadians protected as quickly as possible,” Trudeau said.
STILL REVIEWING MODERNA
Health Canada is still evaluating the Moderna vaccine submission for safety and efficacy, after beginning that process in October. Officials have said they are on track to authorize it for use in this country soon and provinces have been preparing to be able to have access to this vaccine option later this month.
Health Canada’s chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press that the agency has received the final clinical data from the pharmaceutical giant, but is awaiting data on its manufacturing plants, which are expected to be provided by the end of the week.
The Moderna vaccine candidate still requires cold storage, but not at nearly as extreme cold temperatures as the Pfizer doses that started to be administered in Canada on Monday. This means its approval will open up new possibilities for where vaccines can be sent, stored, and shot into the arms of Canadians.
Because the Pfizer vaccine’s requirements are particularly complicated, initial doses are not being distributed to Indigenous communities or the territories.
Trudeau confirmed that doses of the Moderna vaccine will be directed to the North, as well as to remote and Indigenous communities, in “the next few weeks.”
“No community will be left behind. We have a plan to reach everyone who wants a vaccine, no matter where they live. Of course, shipping in the winter—especially to the far North—isn’t without its challenges,” he said.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand first signalled in an interview on CTV’s Question Period this weekend that the government was in talks with Moderna about receiving initial doses early.
Health Canada has said suppliers can pre-position their orders, which Anand said she has raised with Moderna to see if it’d be an option to secure the fastest possible rollout of vaccines as soon as they are approved.
If approved, the Moderna vaccine would be the first to be delivered using Canada’s contracted delivery plan through FedEx Express Canada to have doses shipped across the country.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmN0dm5ld3MuY2EvcG9saXRpY3MvZmVkcy1zZWN1cmUtYWdyZWVtZW50LXRvLXJlY2VpdmUtbW9kZXJuYS1kb3Nlcy13aXRoaW4tNDgtaG91cnMtb2YtYXBwcm92YWwtMS41MjMxOTcz0gFDaHR0cHM6Ly9iZXRhLmN0dm5ld3MuY2EvbmF0aW9uYWwvcG9saXRpY3MvMjAyMC8xMi8xNS8xXzUyMzE5NzMuaHRtbA?oc=5
2020-12-15 16:42:00Z
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