Health authorities across Canada are warning that they’re running low on COVID-19 vaccines.
The federal government in Ottawa ordered more doses per capita than any other country -- reserving at least 214 million COVID-19 vaccines for 38 million people -- and was the second country after the United Kingdom to approve the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX). Health Canada has also authorized Moderna’s (NASDAQ:MRNA) vaccine.
However, so far Canada has vaccinated less than 0.7% of the population, compared to 1.9% in the U.S. and 2.2% in the United Kingdom, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. Officials in a number of provinces, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford, have said they’ll be out of doses if more don’t arrive soon.
Federal officials have said that they are in discussions with vaccine suppliers to accelerate deliveries. However, most of Canada’s orders are from pharma companies whose vaccines have not been approved yet. Ottawa has ordered 52 million doses of the vaccine candidate from Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) that’s been delayed.
Canada is scheduled to receive about two million Moderna doses and four million Pfizer doses by the end of March, said Major-General Dany Fortin, who is leading the logistics effort for Ottawa. That would be enough to vaccinate about 8% of Canada’s population.
