Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal plan to quickly vaccinate interested Canadians against COVID-19 will not stall amid concerns over delays with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.
The company is facing manufacturing problems in Europe, causing a temporary delay in vaccine shipments scheduled for Canada.
The company has assured Canadian officials that it can still deliver four million cans by the end of March, but Minister of Procurement Anita Anand said Friday (Jan. 15) that this is not guaranteed.
“This doesn’t affect our goal of having enough vaccines available by September for every Canadian who wants one,” Trudeau said during a press conference later that day.
Canada has received about 380,000 doses of the vaccine to date and should receive an additional 400,000 this month and nearly two million doses in February.
The news comes as Ottawa released federal projections suggesting the pandemic could soon exceed levels seen in the first wave, rising to 19,630 cumulative deaths and 10,000 daily infections in just over a week.
The modeling shows that the total number of cases could grow from about 694,000 to nearly 796,630 and that an additional 2,000 people could die by Jan. 24.
Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, urged continued vigilance as a long-term forecast indicated that rapid growth would continue without “quick, strong and sustained” action.
Tam said this was particularly the case in the national hot spots of Quebec and Ontario, where steady increases in hospital stays have weighed on the health system’s ability to keep pace with critical care needs. The projections don’t take into account Quebec’s recently introduced four-week curfew or new home-stay orders from Ontario.
We have told the provinces and territories how many vaccines they will receive each week through the end of February – and we will continue to work on delivering even more vaccines as soon as possible. You can find more information about our vaccine rollout here: https://t.co/qDb6YjLoCP
– Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 13, 2021
There’s more to come.
@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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