Procurement Minister Anita Anand, health officials and vaccine program officers have all repeatedly said they've been pressing Moderna for a more stable June delivery schedule for weeks, but have thus far only been able to get a commitment for 500,000 doses this week and 1.5 million the week of June 14.
Alberta has stopped administering first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in favour of other types of immunization.
Vaccines against COVID-19 speed of approvals did not come at the expense of safety.
Canada hasBfour distinct vaccines against COVID-19— Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca — and they add flexibility to the country’s plan to immunize the majority of its residents by September.
The expectation is that starting in April shipments from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will be close to one million a week, allowing provinces to significantly expand their vaccine programs, Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the vice-president of logistics for the Public Health Agency of Canada, said.
Canada is to get 40 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine in 2021, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, or about two-thirds of the Canadian adult population.
In July, Public Services and Procurement Canada issued bids to supply 75 million syringes and other vaccine administration supplies like alcohol swabs and bandages, to be delivered by the end of October. The goal is to have enough supplies to give every Canadian two doses of a vaccine.
Minister Anand anticipates delivery of approved vaccines in 2021.