Canada’s Vaccine Portfolio: The announcement gives AstraZeneca – and the version of the Serum Institute of India – the latest Covid-19 vaccines, after Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, a green light for use in the country.
The Trudeau government has pre-ordered 20 million doses of AstraZeneca, which have yet to be approved in the United States. In January, the United Kingdom became the first country to use the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Canada is on the verge of receiving another 1.9 million doses of the drug manufacturer’s vaccine through the COVAX global vaccine effort.
The government also announced on Friday that they will receive 2 million doses from the Serum Institute of India by mid-May. Minister of Procurement, Anita Anand, said 500,000 doses of the Serum Institute vaccine would arrive within the next days and weeks.
Health Canada estimates that the efficacy of AstraZeneca’s vaccine is 62.1 percent.
Delivery schedules: The Trudeau government has assured Canadians that anyone who wants a vaccine will get it by September.
Anand reiterated that timeline on Friday, although she recently acknowledged that the approval of more vaccines could speed up the effort.
Trudeau said Canada would receive 6.5 million doses by the end of March and that there would be another ten million shots over the next few months.
“We are well on our way,” the prime minister said.
Canada vs. Covid: Deputy Public Health Officer Howard Njoo said on Thursday that 1.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered in Canada. He said 2.9 percent of Canadians received at least one dose of vaccine, while 1.1 percent received two doses.
By comparison, the United States vaccinates 1.5 million Americans a day.
Deliveries at Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech: Maj.Gen. Dany Fortin, who oversees the military’s involvement in the distribution of vaccines, said on Thursday that shipments of the Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines were increasing, with 643,000 doses being distributed in Canada this week.
He said 444,000 more doses of Pfizer are expected weekly through March and 769,000 weekly in the first half of April.
By the end of March, Fortin said Moderna would meet its 2 million dose commitment for the first quarter.
“As we enter spring, we are jointly preparing for what we call the start-up phase,” he said.