Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Canada

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OTTAWA  (NEWS 1130) — The first shipments of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine are in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the first part of the 168,000 doses arrived Thursday, a day after Health Canada approved the company’s vaccine. The rest of the order is expected by the end of the month.

Canada is set to get 40 million doses of the vaccine from the manufacturer into next year.

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Moderna is the second vaccine to get Health Canada’s approval and is easier to ship and store than its competitor’s drug — which has to be transported at extremely low temperatures. The Moderna vaccine also requires people to get two doses, one month apart.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry laid out more vaccine distribution details Wednesday, saying B.C. would work on a 35-day schedule between the first and second doses in hopes to immunize as many people as possible.

The first people to get the vaccines will be healthcare workers, seniors, Indigenous people, and homeless populations.

In the first phase of B.C.’s vaccinations, about 549,000 people will get their initial dose by spring and roughly 240,000 people will also get their second dose.

The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine has already made its way all over B.C. and regular, weekly shipments have already started.

There have been 5,603 people in B.C. immunized so far, including Henry. 

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