Canada reached a critical milestone in the fight against COVID-19 Wednesday, as health regulators approved the first vaccine for the virus, while outlining a goal to be able to vaccinate all Canadians by the end of September 2021.
"Canadians can have confidence in our rigorous review process and that the vaccine was authorized only after a thorough assessment of the evidence demonstrated that it met Health Canada's strict standards for safety, efficacy and quality," Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada senior medical adviser said of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.
As the government had previously announced, 249,000 of the two-dose vaccines will begin to be shipped Friday, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying the first 30,000 will arrive in Canada from Europe on Monday.
"This is all good news - but it doesn’t mean we can let our guards down," Trudeau tweeted.
Maj-Gen. Dany Fortin, leading the national vaccine rollout effort, said they will then be shipped to 14 designated sites across the country, which will be determined by the provinces.
Ontario for example will have two sites and the provincial health minister said Tuesday she expects the announcement for where those will happen "very soon."
The first phase of limited vaccines will go from January to March, where Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo says the expectation is three million Canadians who need them most - such as seniors in long-term care or retirement homes and health care staff - will receive them first.
Health Canada then hopes to begin general population vaccines in April, with half the country done by June and if all goes well, the entire population by the end of September.
That's based on more vaccines being approved and provinces scaling up capacity with more testing sites.
"It will be much easier to I would say handle, manipulate and administer compared to the Pfizer vaccine and so I don't anticipate there should be any issue or problem in terms of offering a wider and growing number of Canadians vaccines starting from April on," Njoo said.
Health officials faced many questions about allergic reactions to the vaccine in Britain, where immunization is already underway.
Sharma said the guidance is that anyone who is allergic to the ingredients of the vaccine should not get it and that they will continue to monitor new data as it comes in, to later determine if that should be changed.
Health Canada is currently looking at three other vaccines for potential approval and while the Moderna version is the closest to get the green light next, officials could not offer a possible date.
The government has already secured seven prepurchase agreements with various distributors and for Pfizer specifically, Ottawa has purchased 20 million doses, withthe option to buy 56 million more.
ONTARIO
Premier Doug Ford tweeted after the announcement "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."
On Tuesday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said the provincial command table was working on which of the 21 hospitals with deep freeze storage would be chosen as the initial sites, adding long-term care homes wouldn't be able to hold the vaccine.
She said work is ongoing to get people in long-term care vaccinated, as well as those in priority groups in rural and First Nations communities.
She also said there have been early discussions on how the vaccine would be distributed as they broaden the recipient pool passed those in priority groups.
Friday is expected to be another big day for Ontario, as more regions could move in the province's colour-coded restrictions, including York Region possibly going into lockdown.
Ford is also expected to speak to reporters for the first time since Monday.