Canada receives first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, 15-million doses incoming

Federal officials said the country’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to exceed their expectations.

As of Thursday, more than 7-million vaccine doses have been administered in Canada. Over 80% of Canadians 80 years and older and more than half of those 70 and older have received their first shot of a vaccine. 10% of those 80 and older and 2% of those 70 and older have received both doses.

Ottawa has distributed over 10.5-million doses of vaccines to provinces and territories and is expecting another 15-million cumulative doses by the end of April.

Major General Dani Fortin, Canada’s head of vaccine logistics, said over 17-million doses are expected from Pfizer-BionTech alone in the next three months. Fortin said deliveries from Moderna continue at their expected pace with the next shipment of 855,000 doses expected early next week, followed by around 1.2-million doses by the last week of April.

Canada also received its first shipment of around 317,000 AstraZeneca doses from the COVAX facility Thursday morning. Fortin said the country can expect to receive a total of 1.9-million doses from COVAX in 2021’s second quarter.

(Supplied by Public Health Agency of Canada)

(Supplied by Public Health Agency of Canada)