PM sticks to September target despite new vaccine, doses

J&J APPROVED

OTTAWA • Canada’s COVID fight got help on several fronts Friday with regulators approving a new vaccine and millions of doses now scheduled for earlier delivery, but the government isn’t yet changing its September target to have everyone vaccinated.

Health Canada approved Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate Friday following the move of the U.S. FDA last week. Canada is set to receive 10 million doses of the one-shot vaccine, made by the company’s subsidiary, Janssenn, before September, but the government can’t yet confirm a more specific delivery timeline.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced a stepped-up delivery timeline for the first vaccine Canada approved, Pfizer, which is boosting its timetable and will now deliver 1.5 million more doses in March, with an additional million more doses in both April and May. Canada was already expecting nearly 2.5 million doses from Pfizer this month.

The added doses, plus shipments from Moderna and the newly approved Astrazeneca vaccine means

Canada expects eight million doses to arrive by the end of this month and cumulatively over 30 million doses will have arrived by late June.

Trudeau said his government was committed to delivering as many doses as quickly as possible.

“We’ll be there with what people need to get through the pandemic. That means we’re sending more and more vaccines to the provinces and territories in the coming weeks and months,” he said. “Millions of doses are on the way. Deliveries have been ramping up, and they’ll ramp up even more in April,” he said.

Canada has ordered 10 million doses of the J&J shot. The company has committed to starting shipments in the second quarter and finishing them before September’s end.

Trudeau said he spoke with the head of the company’s Canadian operation who assured him there will be more details in a few weeks. “He told me that they’re committed to getting the full order of doses to Canada and they’re working on setting up global supply chains as quickly as possible.”

Despite all the new doses, Trudeau said he is not willing to move up his target to have all Canadians vaccinated by September. If the current delivery schedules come through, Canada will have enough vaccines to inoculate the country’s population more than twice over by then, but he said the early rollout has shown too much can go wrong.