Health Canada has approved the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, the first to be given the green light for national use.
Canada is expected to get four million doses of the vaccine by March 2021, with about 249,000 doses expected to arrive this month, as early as next week.
“Health Canada has determined that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine meets the Department’s stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada,” said Health Canada in a statement, alongside a series of documents related with the decision, with the promise of more information about the clinical trial in the weeks ahead.
The federal government has bought 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses each 21 days apart. It has the option to buy another 56 million doses. The vaccine needs to be stores at temperatures below -70 C, so the company plans to ship the doses directly to practices.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends that the first doses go to residents and staff at long-term care homes and adults 80 years of age or older – who are most at risk of developing severe consequences.
Health Canada is reviewing three other vaccine candidates, including one from Moderna, which is set to deliver two million doses to Canada in the first quarter of 2021.
Canada is the second country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, after the United Kingdom did so last week.
The U.K. began vaccinating its citizens yesterday, though the U.K.’s Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is now asking people who have a history of serious allergic reactions to not get the vaccine as they investigate two instances of adverse reactions that occurred in health workers when they got the vaccine.
The United States Food and Drug Administration is set to give the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine the green light to roll out to Americans this week.
B.C. vaccination roll out plan to be released today
Premier John Horgan says the first vaccine doses are just days, noting he expects about 4,000 high-risk people in British Columbia to be immunized by the end of next week.
If all goes to plan, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, expects to have everyone in the province who wants a COVID-19 vaccine to be able get it by Sept. 2021.
Henry and Dr. Ross Brown, the Vice President of Pandemic Response for Vancouver Coastal Health, will outline B.C.’s COVID-19 vaccine plan this afternoon, alongside Horgan and Health Minister Adrian Dix.
Henry has said while the vaccine will not be mandatory, the first doses will go to health-care workers and seniors living in long-term care – people who are more at risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19.
