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Pfizer to speed up delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to Canada, Trudeau says

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – Canada will be getting more COVID-19 vaccines sooner than expected from Pfizer-BioNTech.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday that we are able to move the delivery of 3.5 million doses up from the summer into the next couple of months.

“Pfizer will be delivering an additional 1.5 million doses to Canada this March, moving deliveries ahead of schedule,” Trudeau said. “We’ll also be getting another million doses ahead of schedule in both April and May.”

Canada has a deal to buy 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, which requires two doses for each person.

The company’s drug was the first to receive emergency use approval in Canada late last year.

“For months, we’ve been committing to you that we’ll get six million doses total of COVID vaccines by the end of March. Well, because of the hard work of Minister Anand and the whole team, with these accelerated Pfizer deliveries, we’ll now be getting eight million doses by the end of March,” Trudeau explained. “In total, we can now expect 12.8 million doses from April to June from Pfizer alone.”

In addition to the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, Health Canada also has the Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for use. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine received emergency use approval on Friday and is the only one so far that is single-dose.

On Wednesday, the prime minister said he was optimistic that vaccination timelines across the country could be sped up as additional vaccines were approved.

The federal government has long said that by the end of September, there will be enough doses for every Canadian who wants a shot to get one.

“We will continue to work every single day to bring in more doses for more Canadians,” Trudeau said at a briefing Wednesday.

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