The Public Health Agency of Canada provided an update today on Canada’s vaccine rollout.
Dr. Howard Njoo, deputy chief public health officer with PHAC, provided an update on vaccination percentages while Major-General Denis Fortin, vice-president of logistics and operations for the national vaccine roll-out, spoke on vaccine doses given and delivered.
Up to Feb. 25, there have been 1.5 million doses administered in Canada, Njoo said, meaning 2.9 per cent of Canadians have received one dose, while 1.1 per cent have received two.
Last week, 240,000 doses were administered, the highest amount of the five previous weeks, reflecting, Njoo said, the increase in the available supply of vaccine doses in Canada.
He said those percentages will rise through March as more vaccine doses are delivered.
Njoo said more than 40 per cent of Canadians aged 80 and over have received at least one dose up to today, while 5.5 per cent have received two doses.
Njoo also spoke about the variants of concern, which he called worrying and unpredictable, with the potential to spread faster.
With variants spreading even as many Canadian jurisdictions relax restrictions is a cause for concern, Njoo said.
“Just because we can resume activities doesn’t necessarily mean we should,” he said.
In terms of vaccine deliveries, Fortin said nearly 2.5 million doses of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been distributed to provinces and territories.
This week saw the largest number of deliveries yet with 643,000 doses distributed. Each week in March, Fortin said, Canada expects to deliver 440,000 doses. By the end of March, it is expected four million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will have been delivered.
Then, Fortin said it is expected Pfizer will deliver 796,000 doses a week for the first two weeks of March.
In terms of Moderna, he said Canada is expecting 466,000 doses the week of March 8 and another 466,000 the week of March 22. He said it is expected Moderna will reach its first quarter commitment of delivering two million doses.
Heading into the second quarter of the year, Fortin said Canada is still working to confirm exact delivery and distribution dates