Canada has a vaccine ‘scarcity’ until April
‘The rub is now clinics starting to ramp up’
OTTAWA • Canada can expect millions of doses of Covid vaccine to arrive in april but is currently experiencing a scarcity, said the army boss in charge of handling the vaccine rollout.
maj.-gen. dany fortin said some regions were ramping up to handle extra supplies but there was a limited amount of vaccine available.
“We have been sharing data with provinces and territories who, of course, understandably want more vaccines as they ramp up their vaccination programs. the challenge is we have limited quantities,” said fortin.
“the rub is right now, as clinics are starting to ramp up, there is perhaps disappointment with the relatively small numbers that are being distributed.”
He added, “We have a scarcity of vaccines in the first quarter.”
the second quarter, beginning in april, would see a “ramp up” phase when Canada would see millions of doses of the Pfizer-biontech and moderna vaccines arrive.
“the quantities of doses arriving in Canada is anticipated to average more than one million doses a week,” he said.
fortin said efforts were underway to make sure the supplies and storage needs were identified so everything was in place when the bigger shipments started arriving.
fortin, the vice-president of logistics for the Public Health agency of Canada, said by the end of this week he expected more than 929,000 vaccine doses to have arrived, with another 417,000 before the end of the month, and 1.9 million doses in february.
that will leave 2.7 million doses to be delivered in march to get to the six million doses the companies have promised to ship to Canada before the end of that month.
Canada is aiming to have vaccinated everyone who wants to be vaccinated by the end of September having secured a total of 80 million vaccines from Pfizer and moderna.
But two other vaccines are on the horizon — astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson. if Health Canada approves those in the coming weeks then Canada would see them “trickling into the country,” said fortin.
However, Fortin would not go into whether the September timeline would be brought forward if those two extra vaccines were available.
Meanwhile, Quebec announced it will wait up to 90 days before giving a second COVID-19 shot to people who have received a first dose.
That delay goes far beyond the recommendation of vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, which propose intervals of 21 and 28 days, respectively, and is more than double the 42day maximum delay proposed by Canada’s national vaccine advisory committee.
Health Minister Christian dubé said Thursday that the decision was made in order to vaccinate as many vulnerable people as possible and to reduce the pressure on the health system.
“In our context, this is the best strategy, because we have to contend with (having) very few vaccines, and we’re in a race against the clock,” dubé told a news conference.
He said the province had discussed its decision with vaccine manufacturers and with federal public health officials.
The latter, dubé said, acknowledged that the 42-day recommended maximum can be extended depending on the disease’s progression in a particular province.
He said the high rates of community transmission, hospitalizations and deaths
this is the best strategy ... very few vaccines, and we’re in a race against the clock.
in Quebec justified the change. “In Quebec, we don’t have the same situation as in New Brunswick or British Columbia,” he said.
richard Massé, a senior public health adviser, said the change would allow up to 500,000 seniors who are most at risk of complications — including those in private residences and those aged 80 and up — to receive their vaccine several weeks earlier than originally thought.
Massé said the justification to extend the interval was based on the “experience of working with many vaccines through time,” which shows, he said, that vaccine immunity does not suddenly drop off within a month or two.
He said, however, the province was carefully monitoring the efficacy of the vaccines and would immediately give second doses if authorities saw evidence of decreased immunity in certain groups, such as the elderly.
dubé recognized the federal effort being made to get vaccine to the provinces, but said he wished it would go more quickly because the need was so great.
“We recognize the effort but we’re not satisfied, because we have so many people we want to vaccinate,” he said.