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Feds confirm 9M Pfizer doses arriving in August, option for 3M in September

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday that the government has secured 9.1 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech to arrive in August and an option for three million more in September.

This means Canada will receive two million doses from the supplier every week until the end of the summer.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand added that she continues to push Moderna to stabilize their delivery schedule in the months ahead, after concerns mounted when the government’s overall vaccine tally shifted due to the lack of detail on specific weekly shipments.

This week, Canada will receive 500,000 doses from the supplier, coming in two parts, and 1.5 million doses during the week of June 14.

Health Canada is still reviewing a shipment of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine that arrived in late April, over a possible quality control issue at a Baltimore plant where it was manufactured.

The government is still expecting another one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of June, as provinces decide whether to resume second doses amid concerns of rare but potentially life-threatening blood clotting.

Since May 30, there have been 44 national reports of blood clots following inoculation and five people have died.

Anand has long claimed the Pfizer vaccine is the “workhorse” of the government’s portfolio.

“I would likely to sincerely thank Pfizer for the partnership. We have a complete delivery schedule from Pfizer. Pfizer’s deliveries arrive on time and are stable,” she said Friday.

In total, 29 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have arrived in Canada, 25 million of which have been administered by the provinces and territories.

As of May 29, 65 per cent of the population 12 years and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Canada ranks 14th internationally in terms of the percentage of the population vaccinated with one dose, though it lags on the number of people fully vaccinated with two doses.

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