Tracking doses by manufacturer,
PM calls 5 million doses coming by end of June ‘reason to be hopeful’
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau served up a spoonful of sugar — announcing speedier deliveries of another five million doses of the Pfizer vaccine this spring — one day after provinces suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for anyone under 55.
The AstraZeneca news prompted by concerns rare blood clots might be a side effect soured Tuesday’s arrival of 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses released by the United States.
But Trudeau said the vaccine ramp-up is “reason to be hopeful.” He urged Canadians to “stay strong a little longer” in the face of rising COVID-19 case counts propelled by virus variants, and to take the first vaccine they are offered.
The prime minister and his top officials said there is no reason to halt or reduce shipments of AstraZeneca despite federal concerns it may be linked to “very rare” side effects of blood clots in adults especially women under 55. None have occurred in Canada, but about two dozen cases out of 20 million doses administered in Europe were under investigation.
Trudeau emphasized Health Canada has only approved vaccines that are safe and effective, and continues to monitor the AstraZeneca data.
The rollout of AstraZeneca has been plagued by communications problems, data reporting issues, and now the company has moved to give its vaccine, developed with Oxford University, a new name. It’s been relabelled Vaxzevria — which came as news to Canadian health officials.
Nevertheless, Trudeau made clear it is still a vaccine Canada will employ. “I understand how challenging this can be,” Trudeau told a news conference. “The bottom line for Canadians is the right vaccine for you to take is the very first vaccine you are offered.”
He said his September goal for completing immunization of every Canadian who wishes to be is based on a vaccine portfolio that was “always heavily weighted” towards Pfizer and Moderna, and Trudeau said the AstraZeneca suspension doesn’t change that.
Trudeau suggested his target date might also be accelerated but refused to specify any new date. However he and his procurement minister, Anita Anand, outlined a new schedule for Pfizer doses that will see the company deliver one million doses each week throughout April and May, increasing that to two million doses weekly through June.
That means by the end of June, Canada will receive five million doses of the PfizerBioNTech mRNA vaccine that were initially scheduled for later in the summer.
Those, along with Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines scheduled for delivery, will supply a total of 44 million vaccine doses by the end of June, the end of the second quarter, putting Canada well ahead of its original plan.
Anand said Canada will have received nine million vaccine doses in total by the end of this week, ahead of the expected six million doses that had been anticipated.
She said Johnson & Johnson, the fourth company Health Canada has approved to distribute a vaccine, advised her Monday it will begin shipments of its contracted 10 million singledose vaccine to Canada at the end of April, but she could not confirm delivery dates, so those doses are not calculated in the accelerated schedule.
But it was the AstraZeneca vaccine which dominated questions to federal and provincial officials Tuesday after an independent vaccine expert panel, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), recommended on Monday that provinces suspend the shots for those under 55 because of emerging reports of rare blood clotting cases after immunization in the U.K. and Europe.
Called VIPIT, for vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia, the adverse reaction involves serious blood clots, including in the brain. The symptoms mirror a stroke or heart attack and occur four to 20 days after immunization. They include persistent and severe headaches, blurred vision, shortness of breath, and chest or abdominal pain. The cases have often been associated with a low count of blood platelets — the small cells that help form blood clots to stop bleeding.
The condition can be treated, but NACI said there is a 40 per cent fatality rate associated with those cases where the clots have developed and so it urged a suspension as a precautionary measure.
Overall Canada is still set to receive a total of about 24 million AstraZeneca doses — through two contracts with the AstraZeneca company and its India-based partner Serum Institute of India, plus its contract with the global vaccine sharing project called COVAX.
Anand said 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses that the Biden administration released to Ottawa are coming out of Canada’s 20-million dose contract and would arrive by truck Tuesday.
They will be quarantined and distributed as soon as Health Canada gives a green-light to the U.S. manufacturing facility which made them.
To date, about 500,000 AstraZeneca doses of an expected 1.5 million from the Serum Institute of India have already been distributed to provinces. Of that, between 307,000 and 309,000 AstraZeneca doses were administered to adults, a small fraction of a Canadian total of 5.3 million vaccines that provinces and territories have administered to date.
Chief public health officer Theresa Tam said she did not know how many in the 18-55 year-old age group were among recipients of the AstraZeneca doses. She suggested most had been given to priority groups including more elderly groups. Ontario had not administered any AstraZeneca to people under 60, she noted.
But Tam flagged that with a third resurgence of the pandemic underway in Canada, the AstraZeneca vaccine is still believed to be safe and effective particularly at preventing serious illness and death in older age groups.
Tam said over the past week, Canada has seen on average 4,600 new COVID-19 cases a day, putting a renewed strain on the health-care system.
More than 9,000 new variant cases have been reported, Tam said, with a 64 per cent increase week over week. Most of those — more than 90 per cent — are identified as the B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the UK.