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OTTAWA: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the first of many freezer-packed vials of COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Canada.
Trudeau tweeted a photo of them being taken from a plane on Sunday (December 13). Canada’s health regulator approved the vaccine made by US pharmaceuticals Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech last Wednesday.
The Canadian government recently modified its contract with Pfizer to deliver up to 249,000 doses this month. Trudeau says this is good news, but urges Canadians to continue wearing masks, avoid meetings, and download a government app that lets users know if they have been in contact with people who have tested positive.
Canada and the United States will become the first Western nations after the United Kingdom to begin inoculations with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech of Germany.
The 30,000 initial doses will be distributed to 14 sites in Canada. The most vulnerable people, including the elderly in long-term care facilities and healthcare workers, will be first in line to receive vaccines.
“Some flights will arrive tonight. Some flights will arrive tomorrow. Some trucks will cross the border tomorrow, so everything will arrive in the next few days,” Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin told Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The vaccines left Belgium, where they were produced, on Friday, and traveled to Germany and the United States before being divided and shipped to inoculation sites in Canada.
The distribution schedule is according to plan, and the vaccine administration points will slowly increase starting this week, Fortin said on the Rosemary Barton Live morning show.
“The intention here is to make sure we continue to get regular drip vaccines in the coming weeks,” and 249,000 doses are expected to be in Canada by the end of the year, he said.
Predicting a rapid acceleration in the spread of the new coronavirus during the second wave, Canada’s federal health authorities on Friday called for the provinces to impose more health restrictions before the holidays.
READ: COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments Begin in Historic US Effort.
The country has had 454,852 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 6,011 new infections reported on Saturday. On Friday, health officials said Canada could see 12,000 new cases a day by January.
Canada is expected to approve a second Moderna vaccine “reasonably soon” and the country will be ready to accept shipments by the end of the week, Fortin said.
On the same show, Supriya Sharma, Senior Medical Advisor at Health Canada, said the review of the Moderna vaccine was ongoing and important data was expected later this week.
He also outlined guidance on possible allergic reactions to the Pfizer injection following reports of two such incidents on the first day of vaccination in Britain.
On Saturday, Canada said that anyone with a vaccine allergy should not take the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
“If you are allergic to a vaccine or this vaccine or any component of the vaccine, you should not get it,” Sharma said. “But if you have other allergies, you can go ahead and get vaccinated.”
Health Canada will monitor people who are vaccinated for adverse reactions or side effects, he said.
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.
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