CategoryCanada

Canada is donating an additional 17.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to help inoculate people in low- and middle-income countries, federal ministers announced Monday.

International Development Minister Karina Gould and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the doses were a part of the federal government’s advance purchase agreement with the company and would be distributed through COVAX.

COVAX is a global vaccine-sharing initiative jointly co-ordinated by the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.

The program pools funds from wealthier countries to buy vaccines for those countries and ensure that low- and middle-income countries have access to vaccines as well. Canada has already committed $440 million to COVAX.

“As we are now able to donate excess vaccines, the contribution to COVAX of close to 18 million doses will help to meet international needs and end this pandemic,” Anand said in a statement.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covax-donations-astrazeneca-surplus-1.6099072

New national data shows just how well COVID-19 vaccines are working to bring down the severity of the third wave in Canada.

Based on data provided by the provinces and territories up to May 25, only 0.15 per cent of vaccinated Canadians became infected by the virus 14 days or more after their first dose.

“Compared to unvaccinated cases in these jurisdictions, these people were more likely to report no symptoms and less likely to experience severe illness requiring hospitalization,” Theresa Tam, Canada’s top doctor, said at a federal COVID-19 briefing on Friday.

“This aligns well with vaccine effectiveness studies showing strong protection against severe illness.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/7902177/covid-canada-infection-vaccination-effectiveness/

More than half of Canada’s population has been vaccinated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to CTVNews.ca’s vaccine tracker.

On Saturday morning, the percentage of the Canadian population that has received at least one dose of vaccine tipped over 50 per cent after New Brunswick reported that it had administered another 11,383 first doses.

The percentage of those fully vaccinated – meaning they’ve received two doses – is at just over 4 per cent.

In total, the country has administered more than 20 million vaccine doses.

Dr. Michael Silverman, chief of infectious diseases at the London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London in London, Ont., said Canada reaching 50 per cent for first doses was an important milestone.

“It’s exciting,” he told CTV News Channel on Saturday. “Everybody can do a little dance at home, but we’re not wanting everybody to go out and dance together just yet. It means we’re really on our way to getting back to normal.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/more-than-half-of-canada-s-population-has-received-at-least-one-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-1.5439484

Canada reached a new milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination effort Friday, logging more than 400,000 doses in a single day.

Canada administered a total 400,489 doses of combined first and second doses Friday, according to CTV News.ca’s vaccine tracker.

Numbers released by the federal government showed that 375,636 of the 400,489 doses were first doses, while the remaining 24,853 were second doses.

More than 14 million people have now had at least one dose, which equates to about 37 per cent of all Canadians. In total 14,104,164 Canadians had received at least one dose of a vaccine as of Friday afternoon.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canada-sets-new-single-day-vaccination-record-logging-more-than-400-000-doses-1.5419495

Pfizer will send four million more vaccine doses in May, two million more in June, Trudeau says

Moderna will send far fewer COVID-19 shots to Canada this month than originally planned as the company grapples with production issues at its facilities in Europe.

But its main competitor, Pfizer — which also produces a highly effective mRNA vaccine against the novel coronavirus — has said it will send millions more doses to Canada in May, June and beyond, a commitment that will more than cover the shortfall from Moderna.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that while the delay in Moderna’s shipments is disappointing, Canada has now signed an agreement with Pfizer for eight million more vaccine doses on top of what has already been promised.

Canada will receive four million more Pfizer doses in May, another two million in June and two million more in July, Trudeau said.

That means Canada’s immunization campaign will have access to two million doses per week of the Pfizer product in May and 2.5 million shots per week in the month of June — vaccine stocks that are badly needed as the country grapples with a punishing third wave of cases.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/moderna-delay-1.5990166