Canada on track to finish first round of COVID-19 vaccinations by June, Ottawa says

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This article was published 18/03/2021 (1670 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA—There should be enough COVID-19 vaccines available to give every Canadian who’s eligible a first dose by the end of June, says the country’s top vaccine co-ordinator.

That means anyone over age 16 who wants a vaccination could have an early shot at immunity by the time summer kicks into high gear.

The announcement by Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin marks the first adjustment of any federal timeline since last fall, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada’s goal is to have vaccinations completed for all Canadians who wish to receive inoculations “by September.”

Public health officials and Procurement Minister Anita Anand have repeatedly said that goal will be reached by the end of September.

However, Fortin told reporters Thursday that an expected increase in shipments of the Moderna vaccine, along with new schedules for weekly delivery of one million or more Pfizer doses over the next two months, means provinces should be able to significantly and rapidly boost their vaccination campaigns.

Speaking in French, Fortin said that means the provinces should have enough doses to vaccinate everyone who wants one by the end of June — “if the delivery calendar is not disrupted.”

Fortin later clarified that his timeline was based on providing at least a first dose of the vaccines that require two doses.

Fortin said he was looking only at confirmed delivery schedules for vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well as AstraZeneca vaccine sourced from India.

That schedule could ramp up even more quickly once Ottawa gets a handle on expected deliveries of two other authorized vaccines.

Neither AstraZeneca nor Johnson & Johnson — the manufacturer of the other vaccine approved for use in Canada — has told the federal government when Canada’s contracted shipments will start, how much will be delivered, and what their target dates are to meet their obligations of 10 million doses from Johnson & Johnson, and 20 million doses from AstraZeneca’s U.S.-made supply.

The latter are separate from nearly two million AstraZeneca doses that Canada is currently receiving from the Serum Institute of India through global sharing facility COVAX, which will arrive between now and the end of the June.

Health Canada has told the Star that it estimates the number of residents age 16 and over who would be able to be vaccinated is approximately 31 million, based on estimates from the 2016 census to October 2020.

Right now, there is no vaccination approved for children under 16. Pfizer’s vaccine is authorized for 16 years and older, while the others are authorized for 18 and older.

Fortin said Canada now expects to receive more than 30 million doses of authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the second quarter, for a total of more than 100 million doses by the third quarter.

Joelle Paquette, a federal procurement official, later laid out a schedule that included Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca that added up to 114 million doses expected by the end of the third quarter.

Previous estimates released by the federal government predicted 23 million people, or up to 61 per cent of those eligible, could vaccinated with two doses by the end of June, based on estimated deliveries of all vaccines procured by Canada.

Fortin said the federal government has distributed more than 4.7 million doses of vaccines so far and by the end of March, is on track to receive eight million doses for the first quarter.

That cumulative total for the end of March includes 5.5 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech “and we are on track to receive over 12 million doses between April and June,” he said.

Moderna has ramped up too.

Canada should receive 846,000 Moderna doses during the week of March 22. In April, Fortin said, Moderna has confirmed a shipment of about 855,000 doses in the week of April 5, and about 1.2 million doses in the week of April 19.

Although he did not have specific details for May and June shipments, Fortin said the companies have assured him shipments will continue apace.

But federal officials offered no clarity about why there is such a holdup for the deliveries from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, suggesting only that they expect an update in the coming weeks.

“While more vaccines doses become available, provinces and territories assure us that they are ready for this increase,” Fortin said.

He said the government is ready to shift around the required ultracold freezers to help with storage of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but also said Ottawa has a roster of volunteers, including health workers, that signed up and could be called upon by provinces to help in bookings and administering injections. He suggested none have sought that kind of support from the federal government as yet.

After Fortin spoke, Reuters reported that the U.S. planned to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million doses to Canada. The U.S. has not yet approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, but reportedly has millions of doses available.

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc