Health Canada approved on Friday the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster vaccine that targets the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of the Omicron variant. The vaccine, which is approved for people at least 12 years old, can be given three to six months after a second dose of the primary vaccine series, or the most...
Dr. Theresa Tam said the country could see a high increase of COVID-19 infections if reopening continues quickly before enough people are fully immunized.
Prince Edward Island announced this week it had disposed of 3,200 expired AstraZeneca doses, and Newfoundland and Labrador confirmed Thursday it has nearly 2,900 doses that will go to waste. Health officials in New Brunswick said they had 960 doses of AstraZeneca expire at the end of June, with another 10,300 doses set to expire at the end of August and 200 at the end of October.
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.
In total, Canada has seen 899,757 cases of COVID-19, including 22,371 deaths and more than 30,670 active cases reported across the country.
As the country’s vaccination campaign continues to gain steam, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured Canadians that a growing share of the population would soon be immunized.
“The federal government is failing Canadians. This is a grim situation that seems to be getting worse every week,” Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro said in a statement.
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.