Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Canada will receive 2.9 million doses of Pfizer’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine shortly after its approval by Health Canada for the five to 11 age group.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the deal between Pfizer and the federal government at a press conference with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday.
The deliveries provided will be enough to supply the country with a first dose for every eligible Canadian child, Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said.
Anand said in an emailed statement her office has been working closely with Pfizer to monitor the timing of its submission of data to Health Canada for review so that they could co-ordinate deliveries.
“Based on this work, Pfizer has agreed to an accelerated delivery schedule of its pediatric vaccine once approved,” the statement reads.
Anand said Canada has enough syringes and other supplies necessary to administer the pediatric COVID-19 vaccines, and that delivery of second doses will be “driven by the rapidity of the roll-out and administration of first doses.”
Pfizer submitted clinical trial data for its child-sized dose to Health Canada at the beginning of October, and asked the organization for approval last week.
Thursday’s announcement marks the first COVID-19 vaccine in Canada that will be available for the five to 11 age group once approved by Health Canada.
In its submitted clinical trial data, Pfizer said results were comparable in the five to 11 age group to the study done with people aged 16 to 25. The doses for kids are about one-third of the size given to adults and teens aged 12 and up.
In a statement last week Health Canada said it would prioritize the review of Pfizer’s submission, but would “only authorize Comirnaty [the official name of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine] if the independent and thorough scientific review of all the data included in the submission showed that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the potential risks in this age group.”
Pfizer submitted its data for the same age group in the U.S. in late September, and the White House, anticipating its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, announced its rollout plan at a briefing Wednesday.
Some provinces like Alberta have already begun taking registrations from parents to inoculate their children in the future.
Pfizer has delivered more than 46 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Canada to date.
More than 83 per cent of eligible Canadians are fully vaccinated against the disease.
----
With files from the Canadian Press and CTVNews.ca writer Alexandra Mae Jones, CTV News Medical Correspondent Avis Favaro and Elizabeth St. Philip.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
The trial of a man who admits he killed four women in Winnipeg is set to begin Wednesday, and a law professor says lawyers for Jeremy Skibicki have multiple hurdles to clear for a defence of mental illness.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.