Pfizer to ramp up deliveries this week

OTTAWA — Canada’s sluggish COVID-19 vaccination efforts are expected to get a big boost starting this week as the federal government prepares for a ramp up in the delivery of shots from Pfizer-BioNTech following a month-long lull.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says it expects Pfizer and Moderna to deliver more than 400,000 doses this week and another 475,000 following a slowdown as Pfizer expanded a production plant in Belgium.

The health agency says Canada will then receive nearly 450,000 doses per week until the beginning of April, when Pfizer and BioNTech will have fulfilled their contract to deliver four million shots by the end of March.

The full schedule was published on the health agency's website late Sunday, and for the first time calculates the number of doses to be delivered based on six shots per vial rather than the previous five per vial.

“It is encouraging to look ahead with a greater degree of certainty at the number of vaccines we will receive,” Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander overseeing Canada's vaccine distribution, said in a statement.

“Based on our planning with the manufacturer, Canada is expected to receive more than three million doses between now and end of March. This shows us that the wheel is definitely turning on the vaccine rollout and Pfizer-BioNTech's commitment to deliver its four million doses by end of (March).”

The ramp-up in new deliveries starting this week will be welcomed by provinces and territories, which have administered the vast majority of the vaccines that they have received.

They may also ease some of the pressure on

the federal Liberal government, which has been accused of mismanaging what amounts to the largest mass-vaccination effort in Canadian history.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week acknowledged the struggle with deliveries, but said things will get better in the weeks ahead, and even better than that in April, when Canada is expecting as many as one million doses a week”

"We're approaching something we’re calling the big lift,” he said Thursday in a virtual roundtable with nurses and doctors from around Canada.

Yet the problems aren’t entirely over. Moderna has confirmed its next shipment on Feb. 22 will be only 168,000 doses, two-thirds of what had been promised.

Moderna, which delivers once every three weeks, shipped 180,000 doses last week — 80 per cent of the promised amount.

In addition, Pfizer's deliveries will only meet the promised number of doses if medical professionals can adjust to extracting six doses instead of five from every vial.

Getting that sixth dose requires the use of a low dead-volume syringe, which traps less vaccine in the needle and syringe after an injection.

Canada has now ordered 72 million of those syringes, and two million were delivered last week.

Fortin has said those are being shipped to the provinces to be ready for Monday, though no provinces reported receiving any as of Thursday.

Provincial governments are also concerned about how easy it will be to get that sixth dose, even with the special syringes.

To date, Canada has received about 928,000 doses from Pfizer and 515,000 from Moderna.

Meanwhile, the government is calling in the military to help establish COVID-19 screening centres for travellers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last week that all nonessential travellers arriving at the border by land will be tested starting Feb. 22 before they are allowed to enter the country.

Travellers will still be required to quarantine for 14 days, after which they will be tested again.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is looking at setting up testing sites at 16 border crossings with the U.S. with assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces and other federal departments.

Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande says that military assistance includes sending service members to different sites to help with planning and logistics.

However, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair’s spokeswoman Mary-Liz Power said the military “is not currently planned to undertake any role related to testing, quarantine, or enforcement at the border.”