OTTAWA -- Canada’s new logistical lead on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Brig.-Gen. Krista Brodie, made her public debut Thursday, saying the “monumental effort” of receiving and distributing millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses a week is “on track,” despite the shakeup at the helm of the national effort, and ongoing uncertainty around shipments from three of the four authorized vaccine manufacturers.

Brodie said that this week the federal government has:

  • Distributed two million Pfizer-BioNTech doses, with 1.4 million more being sent across Canada by Friday;
  • Received 1.1 million Moderna doses, which will be delivered to the provinces and territories by Saturday; and
  • Received 534,000 doses of AstraZeneca, with with more doses expected soon and work still underway to determine which provinces and territories to plan to use them.

“We are on track to deliver more than 40 million doses to provinces and territories by the end of June,” Brodie said.

However, Brodie’s commitment appeared at odds with a previously stated commitment from Procurement Minister Anita Anand that Canada was set to receive between 48 and 50 million doses of approved vaccines by the end of June.

Asked about this, the general said that from her perspective she’s talking about doses that Canada has confirmed the delivery of, including what’s already arrived and what has been confirmed to come each week from Pfizer. The difference of between eight and 10 million doses has to do with outstanding uncertainty about coming Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson doses.

While Moderna’s future delivery sizes and timing remain uncertain, the pharmaceutical giant has committed to send between 10.3 and 12.3 million doses by the end of June. To date less than half of those have arrived.

“We're still working with Moderna… on determining their firm delivery over the month of June,” said Public Services and Procurement director general Joelle Paquette.

In addition to the ongoing uncertainty around Moderna’s coming deliveries, with batches coming from various places, AstraZeneca’s coming deliveries are also in limbo. Further, how Canada will use the existing and additional AstraZeneca doses set to land before the end of June remains largely up in the air. Brodie said that plans are being made to reallocate doses if certain provinces don’t want to draw their portion from the existing federally-kept stockpile to make every effort to use them, but there is a risk of some shots expiring.

“At this point we're tracking a very small number of doses that will expire at the end of May, and we're working actively with the provinces to ensure that they can be used in a jurisdiction that has the capacity to administer those before their expiry date. The remainder of the AstraZeneca doses that were distributed this week have an expiry towards the end of August so they, like provinces, have an ample opportunity to work those into their distribution plans into their vaccination campaigns,” Brodie said.

Further, the first and only shipment of Johnson & Johnson doses to arrive, remains in the possession of Health Canada which is conducting a safety review on the batch, with indications it could be weeks still before those doses are either cleared or deemed unusable in Canada. 

Brodie was named as the new vice-president of vaccine logistics and operations on Monday, replacing Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who left his post as the face of the federal rollout, amid a sexual misconduct investigation into an allegation that he, through his lawyer, “completely denies.”

Brodie was initially one of two military generals who were seconded to the National Operations Centre to assist Fortin as part of a team of nearly 30 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, in November 2020. She left briefly to return to the military, but said Thursday that it was “an honour” for her to return to her role within the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

She has come into the role at a pivotal moment, as the push is on to see all eligible Canadians receive their first dose by Canada Day and have everyone fully vaccinated who wants to be by the end of September. Across Canada, COVID-19 vaccines are becoming increasingly available and are arriving from the international manufacturers in larger quantities.

“This organization has momentum. We are very much in the big lift. We are increasingly seeing high volume of vaccine supplies, with a record number of vaccine deliveries this week. The National Operations Centre is humming along like a well-oiled machine,” she said.

In April, PHAC President Iain Stewart has told MPs that across Canada, the provinces and territories have said that they could be administering up to 3.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses a week. Asked Thursday whether that capacity remains, officials didn’t offer a specific figure, saying generally that capacity continues to increase.

“There's been all sorts of things we've seen: Pop up clinics, or clinics at night… drive by clinics… It’s amazing, you know, how the provinces have been innovative in terms of offering and increasing our capacity,” said Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo.

According to CTV News’ vaccine tracker, nearly 55 per cent of Canadians ages 12 and older have received at least on dose, while Canada still lags behind when it comes to the number of people who are fully vaccinated, with just over 1.5 million second doses having been administered.