OTTAWA – Up to 124,500 Canadians can simply get doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine until the end of the month, provided it is approved by Health Canada shortly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday.
“Our purpose is to provide Canadians with an effective vaccine as soon as possible,” Trudeau said at a news convention in which he announced that Canada would get “up to 249,000” doses of the vaccine jointly developed through Pfizer and BioNTech to the end. . December.
Since the Pfizer vaccine requires two doses to be effective, this means that only up to 124,500 Canadians can be vaccinated at least partially until the end of the month. Pfizer stated that the dose at the moment will be given 3 weeks after the first dose.
This first wave of vaccines is just one drop in the ocean of the total 20 million doses Canada has already purchased from Pfizer (in order to order 56 million more), but Trudeau has promised that millions more doses will arrive in early 2021.
The launch of the Trudeau vaccine has been increasing complaints from critics and opposition parties, especially since the UK government first approved the Pfizer vaccine last week. The United States also promised that vaccination would be fine until the end of December.
The prime minister even warned Canadians that they must be prepared for citizens of other countries to vacute before them.
“Did you ask (Minister of Purchasing Anita Anand) to distribute and annul this agreement to obtain a small amount of doses of vaccines, because she was involved in the political opinion of other countries vaccinating first?”asked a reporter on Monday.
In response, Trudeau said he knew Canadians saw vaccines as a lifeline, so he didn’t need to excite other people at first.
“We know there is enormous uncertainty about which vaccines would come first, which would be made quickly,” Trudeau said. “We didn’t need to give hope to other people. “
But any vaccine launch in December depends on Health Canada’s approval of the Pfizer product, which can happen within a week. If that happens, Pfizer’s first shipment would be delivered to Canada next week, Trudeau said.
The distribution of the Pfizer vaccine, which will be kept at ultra-cold temperatures of -80 ° C, would be the next step in what Trudeau described as “the largest mobilization of vaccines in Canadian history. ” And it will be from a simple task.
“From a logistics and delivery perspective, this is the mobilization of vaccines in Canada’s history,” Trudeau said.
He said that once approved through Health Canada, those initial doses of vaccines will be distributed to 14 other immunization sites in Canadian cities.
We know there is uncertainty about which vaccines would come first
They would then be administered through the provinces, which would give priority to Canadians who are among the 4 precedence teams known through the National Immunization Advisory Committee.
These come with citizens of long-term care homes, Canadians over the age of 80, physical care personnel, and remote or northern Aboriginal communities.
But the latter organization will probably have to wait until the time the possible candidate vaccine is approved, through Moderna, before receiving the doses. Its leaders expressed their preference for this vaccine because it is less difficult to send and store, as it should only be stored at -20oC.
Ontario also reported Monday that the first wave of vaccines would likely be given to Canadians that could be one of the country’s 14 central immunization sites, according to M. Trudeau, which would soon be in place.
“There will be one (vaccination site) in the province and two in the largest provinces of our country,” Trudeau said, referring to Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta. “The resolution on distribution to provinces and territories, it has agreed, will become consistent with capital.
According to the division general. Dany Fortin, whom Trudeau has appointed to oversee the launch of the vaccine, only takes a few days since vaccines arrive in the provinces and when they are distributed.
The prime minister said Monday’s announcement showed an acceleration of the government’s initial plans for vaccine deployment, which first predicted the arrival of the first doses of vaccine in Canada in the first months of 2021.
Email: cnardi@postmedia. com Twitter: ChrisGNardi
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