Many Canadians were heaving a sigh of relief as news of Health Canada’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine. Canada is the third country to do so, UK being the first one and then Bahrain.
Prime Minister Trudeau announced Monday that Canada would receive up to 249,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine once it is approved by Health Canada. Now that the regulatory approval has been given, shipments will presumably begin next week and it will then be up to the provinces to handle the vaccination process.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeted: “This is phenomenal news for all Canadians as we take the next step toward ending this pandemic. As soon as vaccines arrive on Ontario soil, we will be ready to deliver and administer them.”
Amongst the vulnerable populations identified for initial immunization by NACI, those in urban centres are most likely to be vaccinated first because of the logistical challenges surrounding the handling of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. While seniors in long-term care homes were a first priority this might not be possible.
According to Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said that Pfizer has indicated that too much movement of the shots could degrade the quality of the vaccine, which must be stored in ultra-cold freezers at a temperature of -80 C.
This may mean that the province may first have to vaccinate people at large vaccination centres until the Moderna vaccine arrives in Canada, explained Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, the chair of the province’s COVID-19 vaccine task force.
An estimated 85,000 of the Pzifer vaccine doses are expected to be coming to Ontario.
The UK, which is the first country to administer the Pfizer vaccines, has warned that people with severe allergies to food or drugs (like those who carry an EpiPen), should not take it.
