New data reportedly supports extended 4-month vaccine dose interval

Canada is continuing to stand by the decision to extend the interval between COVID-19 doses to four months.

While the first dose may not be full-proof, some new data from the Public Health Agency of Canada provided to the Globe and Mail, reportedly proves getting more shots in more arms as quickly as possible has its benefits.

New numbers suggest only a small percentage of Canadians who have received that first dose have gone on to develop the virus. The number sits at only 1.3 per cent.

An even smaller share of that total have gotten seriously ill or died

More than 33 per cent of the Canadian population has now had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Canada is set to begin receiving more than 2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week as the two pharmaceutical firms ramp up their deliveries.

Pfizer and BioNTech have been consistently delivering around 1 million doses from Brussels each week since mid-March, but those numbers will double over the next month before increasing further in June.

This week’s doses will also be the first to arrive from Pfizer’s plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after the U.S. government previously limited vaccine exports to inoculate its own citizens first.

But there is no immediate word on progress in talks with the U.S. over the provision of more doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is in high demand across Canada.

Moderna, meanwhile, is slated to deliver its next batch of more than 1 million shots next week.

Ottawa has not said when it will release the 300-thousand doses of the single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine that arrived last week.

Health Canada recently announced it was holding those doses back while it investigates potential safety concerns tied to an American production plant.