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OTTAWA: Canada approved its first COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday (Dec. 9) and said initial injections will be delivered and administered nationwide starting next week, while all Canadians will be able to be inoculated by the end of September. .
Canada is the third country after Great Britain and Bahrain to give the green light to Pfizer’s vaccine, developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE.
Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in parliament that it was “a good day for Canadians.”
“We will see 30,000 vaccines start arriving next week and many more on the horizon, but … we have a harsh winter to get through,” Trudeau said.
Canada is in the midst of a virulent second wave of the pandemic, with various areas of the country imposing new health restrictions, weighing down what had been a clear rebound after the first wave.
General vaccinations for all Canadians will begin in April after priority populations are served, the government said in a vaccination plan also released Wednesday.
The nation is now “well positioned to immunize 100 percent of the population by 2021,” according to the plan, while a separate table distributed by the Health Ministry said immunization could be completed by the end of September.
READ: Rich countries have bought too many COVID-19 vaccines: Amnesty International
“It’s going to be good for Canada and the global economy once vaccines start rolling out in a meaningful way,” said Norman Levine, managing director of Portfolio Management Corp in Toronto.
The Toronto stock market has recovered about 12 percent since the end of October and the Canadian dollar linked to commodities has risen to a 2.5-year high against its US counterpart, as investors are betting on that the launch of vaccines would boost the world economy next year.
The vaccine, which the regulator said was “safe, effective and of good quality,” was approved under an accelerated and interim drug review system very similar to the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations. .
There comes a day before an FDA advisory panel reviews and recommends whether the US agency should authorize the use of the Pfizer vaccine.
On Tuesday, British citizens became the first in the world to receive the vaccines outside of clinical trials following UK approval last week.
In a large late-stage trial, the vaccine was shown to be 95 percent effective in preventing disease, much better than originally intended.
However, on Wednesday, Britain’s drug regulator warned that people with a history of significant allergies should not get the Pfizer vaccine after two people reported adverse reactions on the first day of its launch.
Responding to questions about allergic reactions, Health Canada officials said it’s always a risk with vaccines and that they will monitor developments. They only recommend that people who have previously had adverse reactions to any of the ingredients in the vaccine not take it for now.
‘HISTORIC MOMENT’
The province of Saskatchewan said Wednesday that it expected to receive enough doses for 1,950 people on Tuesday, intended first for healthcare workers in direct contact with COVID-19 patients.
Quebec expects to have received 55,000 doses of the vaccine by January 4, said the prime minister of the predominantly French-speaking province, Francois Legault.
Legault also said it is weighing new restrictions and increasing the enforcement of current ones.
As of Tuesday, Canada had reported 429,035 total cases, an increase from 5,981 the day before and 12,867 deaths.
“Today’s decision by Health Canada is a historic moment in our collective fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and is an important step towards getting back to normal in Canada,” said Cole Pinnow, president of Pfizer Canada, in a statement.
Canada has a firm order for 20 million doses of the vaccine, enough to inoculate 10 million people, with options to buy up to 56 million more. Pfizer will ship its vaccine, which requires ultra-cold storage, to warehouses throughout Canada.
For the most part, the provincial and territorial health systems will administer the vaccines for free. They will have the final say on how to use the scarce initial supplies in their jurisdictions.
The priority groups to be vaccinated first include some healthcare workers, residents and long-term care employees, the elderly, and indigenous people, according to federal guidelines.
Regulators have received ongoing requests for three other experimental vaccines, from Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
The Moderna vaccine is the most advanced, having completed critical trials that show it is 94.1% effective in preventing disease and 100% effective in preventing severe COVID-19.
Authorities have said they expect to receive 6 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines before the end of March. Each vaccine requires two doses administered approximately three weeks apart.
FedEx Corp and Innomar Strategies, a Canada-based unit of US drug distributor AmerisourceBergen, were contracted to provide logistical support in the vaccine delivery.
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