Pfizer to halt COVID vaccine deliveries to Canada next week, making worse already slow rollout – By Ryan Tumilty (National Post) / January 20 2021
Justin Trudeau stressed the setback was temporary and said Canada would still receive four million doses of Pfizer’s product before the end of March
OTTAWA – Canada will receive zero Pfizer vaccines next week as the company temporarily suspends deliveries, further slowing a vaccine rollout that is lagging behind other countries as the pandemic kills more Canadians every day.
Pfizer first announced last week they would be reducing deliveries to all countries that receive shipments from their plant in Belgium, as the company upgrades the facility to ultimately produce more vaccines.
The cut is expected to reduce shipments to Canada for the next three to four weeks. Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who is overseeing the government’s rollout, said Canada received 82 per cent of its expected shipment of 208,000 doses this week, but would receive no deliveries next week.
In the first two weeks of February, when doses had been set to rise to 367,000 a week, they would now be lower, before returning to expectations and growing in late February and into March. Doses of the Moderna vaccine will continue as normal, but Pfizer’s product has made up most of the deliveries so far.
