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Canada’s vaccine portfolio: The announcement makes AstraZeneca – and the Serum Institute of India’s version – the latest Covid-19 vaccines, after Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, to be given the green light for use in the country.
The Trudeau government has pre-ordered 20 million doses of AstraZeneca, which has yet to be approved in the United States. In January, the UK became the first country to use the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Canada is on track to receive an additional 1.9 million doses of the drugmaker’s vaccine as part of the COVAX global effort for vaccine equity.
The government also announced on Friday that by mid-May it would receive 2 million doses from the Serum Institute of India. Purchasing Minister Anita Anand said 500,000 doses of the Serum Institute vaccine would arrive in the “days and weeks to come”.
Health Canada has estimated the efficacy of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to be 62.1%.
Delivery schedules: The Trudeau government has assured Canadians that anyone who wants a vaccine will get one by September.
Anand repeated that schedule on Friday, although she recently acknowledged that approval of more vaccines could speed up that effort.
Trudeau said Canada will receive 6.5 million doses by the end of March and tens of millions of additional vaccines are expected to arrive in the coming months.
“We are on the right track,” said the Prime Minister.
Canada vs. Covid: Deputy public health official Howard Njoo said on Thursday that 1.5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had been administered in Canada. He said 2.9 percent of Canadians received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 1.1 percent received two doses.
By comparison, the United States immunizes 1.5 million Americans per day.
Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech deliveries: Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who oversees the military’s involvement in vaccine distribution, said on Thursday that shipments of Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines were increasing, with 643,000 doses distributed across Canada this week.
He said an additional 444,000 doses of Pfizer were expected each week through March and 769,000 per week in the first half of April.
At the end of March, Fortin said Moderna would have met its commitment of 2 million doses in the first quarter.
“As spring approaches, we are collectively preparing for what we call the ramp-up phase,” he said.
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