Ontario readying for COVID-19 vaccine rollout

If COVID-19 vaccine doses don't arrive in Ontario until the early months of 2021, it will give the province more time to prepare and to learn from the experiences of other countries who are administering vaccines earlier.

Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, chair of Ontario's COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force, made this point at a Tuesday press conference, hours after the prime minister emphasized his own government's duty to ensure safety and rapid access to COVID-19 vaccination.

“Our top responsibility is keeping Canadians safe. Now, in the COVID pandemic, keeping Canadians safe means getting a vaccine as quickly as possible. But it also means making sure that that vaccine is safe for Canadians,” said Trudeau.

The prime minister described Canada's potential vaccine portfolio as the most diverse of any country in the world, with deals signed for hundreds of millions of doses of seven vaccine candidates.

Four of those candidates — from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — have been submitted for Health Canada review.

The government is hoping distribution to Canadians will begin in the first quarter of 2021. Asked Tuesday exactly when the vaccines will arrive, however, Public Procurement Minister Anita Anand replied, “It is not possible to circle a single date on a calendar.”

Federal opposition parties continued to demand more information from the government while repeating past allegations that the Liberals dragged their feet on vaccines.

“We don't control when the vaccines arrive to us and when they're approved by Canada. So we wait to hear that,” Hillier said Tuesday, speaking alongside Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott.

If it's not until the first quarter of 2021, other countries are going to be vaccinating people before that, said Hillier.

“And although we'd like to have them early, if we don't, we do get an incredible opportunity to learn from their experiences in front of us, and to learn what they're doing right, and to make sure that we're doing that in our vaccination program and operation.

“And if they're doing some things wrong, make sure we can improve on it so we don't make the same mistakes.”

Elliott said the province is taking the prime minister at his word that “we will have the vaccines very early in January.”

But the province will be seeking further clarification and working closely with federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu, said Elliott.

The province is pledging that it will be ready by Dec. 31 to receive vaccines. In a Tuesday press release, the Ontario government said it's working with leaders in the pharmaceutical, health-care and logistics sectors to come up with a distribution plan.

Asked about the possibility of mandatory vaccination for people in certain jobs, Elliott said Ontario Premier Doug Ford “has been very clear that he wants this to be a voluntary assumption, that people will receive the vaccine voluntarily, we don't want to make it a mandatory requirement.”