OTTAWA -- The first tranche of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines is on its way to Canada and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, as part of the 944,600 vaccine doses arriving this week, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday.
A total of 500,000 AstraZeneca shots are in transit to Canada from the Serum Institute of India and Verity Pharmaceuticals, as part of a deal for two million doses. As well, the weekly delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine contains 444,600 doses.
鈥淭his week, we are on track to see approximately 945,000 doses of vaccines arriving in Canada,鈥 said Anand. 鈥淭hus, almost a million doses will be delivered into this country this week alone, and next week we are set to receive more than 900,000 doses of vaccines,鈥 she said.
With the addition of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada鈥檚 list of authorized vaccines, the federal government has said that shipment sizes are set to continue to increase. This aligns with the plans to begin immunizing more people, and could lead to an acceleration of the timeline of having at least 14.5 million Canadians fully vaccinated by the end of June.
鈥淎s our government ramps up the delivery of vaccines to provinces this week, we know that more Canadians will be offered the opportunity to receive their vaccine, and we encourage everyone who's offered this opportunity to accept,鈥 said Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, adding that all who are vaccinated will need to continue to follow their local public health guidance.
Factoring in the largest allotments yet going to provinces, and the reality that 300,000 of the first shipment AstraZeneca shots have an early April expiry date, the pressure is on premiers to show that they can effectively administer more doses in a shorter timeframe than they have had to since the first shots landed in Canada in December.
鈥淎ll doses have expiry dates鈥 it is important to recognize that we have high demand for vaccine in this country. We have provinces and territories that have repeatedly told the federal government that they want vaccines as soon as possible, and they're ready to administer vaccines as soon as possible,鈥 Anand said.
In an interview on 麻豆影视 Channel鈥檚 Power Play Tuesday, Anand said there will be 鈥渟ufficient time鈥 to get these doses administered, though the federally-contracted distribution system contracted to FedEx Canada and Innomar Strategies.
WHO WILL GET ASTRAZENECA?
Facing questions about who will be given the newly-approved AstraZeneca doses, federal officials said Tuesday that it鈥檚 a decision that will be up to each province and territory.
This comes after Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) issued new guidance on Monday not recommending the use of its COVID-19 vaccine in individuals aged 65 years and older, due to 鈥渢he insufficiency of evidence of efficacy in this age group at this time.鈥
Health Canada authorized the vaccine for use in people ages 18 and up, and continues to stress that there are no safety concerns after seniors receiving this vaccine as it like the other two approved vaccines has been shown to considerably reduce serious COVID-19 illness resulting in hospitalization or death.
On Tuesday, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said that NACI鈥檚 guidance was based on 鈥渢he data they have at hand,鈥 and that she expects it to be updated.
鈥淲atch this space, as they see more and more of that real world data accumulating, that will be adjusted,鈥 Tam said.
She was asked if instead of using this vaccine to help inoculate seniors, who are a focus in this current phase of immunizations, it should go to essential workers or racialized Canadians who NACI has highlighted as among those who should be next in line.
鈥淭here's an opportunity, potentially, for this group of people who wouldn't have got the vaccine until a couple of months later, to have the opportunity to get it鈥 But it is up to the provinces and territories to implement how they're going to use the AstraZeneca vaccine,鈥 she said, adding it could also be given to younger people or be used to continue to vaccinate health-care workers.
Raising concerns about whether NACI鈥檚 guidance will be heeded, Conservative health critic Michelle Rempel Garner said that the federal government should provide clear direction about the use of AstraZeneca.
鈥淭he potential impacts of following one path over another need to be answered today,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ecause of this conflicting advice, provinces now have to make decisions about who to deliver this vaccine to, and under what circumstances. Canadian seniors will have questions about if this vaccine is effective, and why Canada is choosing to give it to them when some government experts have advised against it.鈥
Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin said he was briefed Tuesday on the allotment of AstraZeneca doses coming his provinces way out of this first shipment鈥攁round 13,000 shots he said鈥攂ut still needs time to figure out who these vaccines would go to.
鈥淲e'll have to see how we can find a cohort that makes the most sense to deliver the vaccine and an age group that's less than 65,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e don't want to interfere with the effectiveness and the efficiency by which we are delivering those vaccines out to first of all the 48,000 Nova Scotians that are over the age of 80鈥 that need the vaccine the most.鈥
鈥淲e know that there's an expiry date on those vaccines so we don't anticipate waiting very long to make our decision,鈥 Rankin said.
Responding to this, Anand said that should any province decide to not take a certain shipment, 鈥渨e will find other takers.鈥
NEW DETAILS ON COMING SHIPMENTS
Next week鈥檚 shipments will come from Pfizer and Moderna, as those firms work to meet their commitment to ship a combined total of six million doses by the end of March.
鈥淲e're expecting to receive around 23 million doses of Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna between April and June,鈥 said Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin on Tuesday.
The balance of 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses coming to Canada through the Serum Institute will come over April and May. This will overlap with the beginning of deliveries of the 20 million AstraZeneca doses Canada has secured through an agreement with AstraZeneca for shots developed in partnership with Oxford University and coming from the U.S. between April and September. Health Canada鈥檚 approval authorized shots to come from both manufacturers.
While Pfizer鈥檚 shipments will continue to come to Canada weekly, Moderna will be moving from delivering doses every three weeks to sending new shipments every two weeks.
Fortin said that in the first two weeks of April, Pfizer is expected to send around 769,000 doses per week.
In light of the latest figures being confirmed, the federal government is in talks with the provinces and territories about the per capita allocations of these shipments.
鈥淲e will continue to lead the planning effort to ensure that the processes for delivering, storage, handling, and immunization clinics and the provinces and territories can keep pace with increasing shipment sizes of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines,鈥 Fortin said.
