TORONTO -- While Canadian doctors are welcoming the news of Health Canada’s approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, they’re also cautioning there is still more work to be done before life can return to some semblance of normal.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch described the health agency’s decision as an “historic moment” for the country.

“It is OK to stop along the path and pause for a minute and take a moment to acknowledge that this is an incredible moment in time and just to really acknowledge the people who have put in so much effort to create and produce and study these vaccines,” he told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

The vaccine developed by the American firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech is the first candidate to receive the green light for distribution in Canada. The approval by Health Canada comes just a day after the U.K. began inoculating its eldest citizens with the same vaccine – the first Western country to do so.

U.S. and European Union regulators are expected to follow suit and approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the coming days or weeks as well.

Bogoch said the scientific community has come a long way since they first learned of the novel coronavirus in late 2019, and he’s looking forward to seeing the safe distribution of these vaccines in the coming months.

“To watch how these vaccines are rolled out in a meaningful, equitable, data-driven manner to really help us get this under control here in Canada,” he said.

Dr. Jelena Vojicic, Pfizer Canada’s vaccines medical lead, told CTV National News Medical Correspondent Avis Favaro that she’s proud to have been involved in the development of the vaccine.

“It is months of work at risk, right? And when you see something as encouraging as the data that came through, you know, one cannot help but tear up…it does get emotional,” she said.

“It’s really a historic moment for the science. This might change the way we do clinical trials and vaccine trials. New technologies are enabling us to do things differently so this is really unprecedented.”

CTV News’ infectious disease specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkawy agreed the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was a “monumental, exciting landmark moment in our response to the pandemic.” He said many in the medical profession were “pleasantly surprised” by the announcement on Wednesday.

“I have confidence that Health Canada has done this with their due diligence in mind and I think it's up to us to make sure that the rollout strategy is executed appropriately,” he told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

‘THE VACCINE IS NOT GOING TO BE A SILVER BULLET’

Sharkawy also stressed that this is only the beginning of a “very long journey” to bringing the virus under control and that Canadians will have to continue to adhere to public health measures for a while longer.

Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease specialist, echoed that sentiment and asked Canadians to be patient during the vaccine rollout.

“The virus is still with us,” he said. “Yes, we’ll start to relax at some point in 2021, but we still have to remember to keep our contacts low, physical distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing. We have to do that for the next little bit.

"The vaccine is not going to be a silver bullet.”

Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency room physician at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary, said the approval of a vaccine in Canada is a “light at the end of the tunnel,” but the country still has a lot of “dark paths” to travel through first before it can reach it. He said the vaccine distribution will be a key component.

“It’s only to come out in dribs and drabs and so we’re going to have to be very targeted in who is getting it first,” he told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

Vipond also said they will have to combat “vaccine hesitancy” and misinformation about the shots in order to ensure people get vaccinated.

“People need to understand that science works,” he said. “Vaccines have saved more lives than any other single health intervention in the history of mankind and I suspect this will be no different.”

Chakrabarti said that authorities will have to provide complete transparency about the vaccines to reassure the population and fight misinformation. He cited the example of two individuals in the U.K. who had an allergic reaction after they received the vaccine.

“These adverse events can happen. It’s important to analyze why it happened, if it happened in individuals, and if it was because of the vaccine,” he said. “We’re going to be looking at these [cases] very, very closely… but that doesn’t mean that we can’t give the vaccine, we just have to realize why it happened and be careful with it.”

Sharkawy said he expects they will hear of more cases of individuals who don’t tolerate one vaccine over another, which is why he said it’s a good thing Canada has contracts to procure multiple vaccine candidates.

“We’re going to need all of these vaccines ideally, so that we find a niche for different patient populations across Canada and hopefully accelerate the timeline towards herd immunity,” he said.

The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected to arrive in Canada early next week. The plan is for them to be administered at 14 delivery sites in major cities across the country soon after their arrival.

With files from CTVNews.ca’s Rachel Aiello