Canada Could Have COVID-19 Vaccine Before Christmas, Justin Trudeau Says

Canada will get up to 249,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine this month, pending Health Canada approval, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday.

“It’s been a difficult year and we are not out of the crisis yet. But now vaccines are coming,” Trudeau said.

The encouraging new Pfizer vaccine timeline will allow provinces to provide vaccines sooner than expected, potentially before Christmas. The prime minister previously promised that the most vulnerable—healthcare workers, the elderly, immunocompromised people, as well as Indigenous communities—will be first in line to get vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus. 

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The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses, 28 days apart.

Because it has to be stored in minus 80 C, it will be harder to store and administer doses in remote and northern communities, Trudeau said, adding that subsequent vaccines that are easier to store will be distributed on a priority basis in those regions.

“We understand that getting vaccines first to the most vulnerable people is what we need to do,” Trudeau said.

Health Canada has not approved any vaccine yet. The regulator is expected to approve Pfizer’s vaccine, which the company has said is 95 percent effective, next week, and the first shipment of doses will immediately follow if all goes well, Trudeau said.

Pfizer doses will continue to arrive throughout 2021, with Canada expecting between 20 and 76 million. 

Health Canada and Pfizer are currently working with provinces and territories to finalize preparations for the first 14 inoculation sites across Canada.

“Any vaccine approved in Canada will be safe and effective,” Trudeau said. 

The news comes after the prime minister told Canadians the first round of doses would start trickling in between January and March—later than other countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Germany. 

Trudeau has already secured millions of vaccine doses for Canadians, one of the most diverse portfolios in the world, with 358 million doses ordered across at least seven companies—enough to cover the entire population 10 times over. But it will likely take up to nine months to inoculate all Canadians and forecasts say most Canadians won’t be vaccinated until September 2021. 

The hope, Trudeau said, is to get to a point where millions of Canadians are vaccinated every month.

Inoculation against COVID-19 will amount to the largest vaccine operation in Canadian history, Trudeau said.

Trudeau acknowledged that there have been record-breaking rates of new COVID-19 cases across the country and reminded Canadians to stay home, wear masks, and maintain distance from others.

“I know this winter will be hard, especially with holidays fast approaching,” Trudeau said. “Let’s buckle down to keep ourselves and others safe.”

As of Monday morning, Canada has reported a total of 415,182 COVID-19 cases and 12,665 deaths. 

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