OTTAWA - Health Canada says the COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. biotech firm Moderna is safe for use in Canada.
The vaccine is the second to be greenlit in Canada, following the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine on Dec. 9.
Moderna anticipates starting shipments to Canada within the next 48 hours.
Up to 168,000 doses are set to arrive by the end of December, and two million by the end of March.
Canada is to get 40 million doses of Moderna's vaccine in 2021, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, or about two-thirds of the Canadian adult population.
Ontario says it expects to receive approximately 53,000 doses of the newly approved Moderna COVID-19 vaccine by the end this month.
Premier Doug Ford says the new vaccine, which was approved by Health Canada on Wednesday, is a ``'game-changer.''
A spokeswoman for Ontario's health minister says the province expects to receive the doses next week and they will first be taken to long-term care homes.
She says the province is working with public health units on a plan to start administering the shots in long-term care facilities during the first week of January.
The premier says other priority groups, including Indigenous communities and residents of retirement homes, will also receive the Moderna vaccine soon.
The vaccine is not yet recommended for use on children as tests on adolescents only began in December and tests on children younger than 12 won't begin until next year.