Province will stop holding back vaccine for second shots

Health Minister Christian Dubé said it will be possible to speed up the province's vaccination rate by using up all available doses of the Pfizer/ Biontech vaccine.

Until now, the province had been holding back half of the vials of vaccine delivered by Pfizer in order to ensure everyone is able to receive two doses, because the vaccine is most effective when two shots have been administered roughly three weeks apart.

In a statement released on its website Thursday, the health ministry noted Pfizer had recommended the second doses of everyone who got vaccinated be kept aside, but in recent days, the delivery of the vaccine has become more dependable, so it is no longer necessary to do this.

The health ministry said Pfizer has signed off on this new method, as has the province's immunization committee and Quebec's public health institute, the INSPQ.

On Friday, the executive director of Montreal's centre-west health authority informed staff of the new vaccine schedule.

“I realize that this may disappoint some of you who hoped to get your second injection

Please rest assured that this change will not affect your health or well-being.

three weeks after your first, as originally planned,” Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg said in an email.

“Please rest assured that this change will not affect your health or well-being. In fact, research has shown that the Pfizer vaccine achieves 90 per cent effectiveness two weeks after the first dose has been administered. The second dose is a `booster' shot that enhances the already high level of protection.

“When more doses of the vaccine become available, you will be advised when and where you can get your second shot,” Rosenberg added.

Quebec has received 87,500 vaccine doses, 55,000 of them developed by Pfizer/ Biontech and the rest by the company Moderna. The province is currently vaccinating the first two priority groups: residents of long-term-care homes known as CHSLDS, and health-care workers. The next groups to be targeted are those living in private old-age homes, those living in isolated communities, those 80 and older and those 70 and older.

As of Wednesday, a total of 29,250 doses of vaccine had been administered since the campaign began last month, which means fewer than 15,000 people have been properly immunized with two doses of the vaccine.

Despite the delivery of the vaccine, the virus continued to rage out of control this week, with records set three days in a row for the most number of infections reported in a 24-hour period.

On Thursday, the province recorded 2,819 cases, bringing the total since the pandemic to 202,641. A total of 8,226 Quebecers had died of the virus as of Dec. 30. The province won't be reporting daily numbers again until Sunday.