As Canada is at grips with its third wave of COVID-19, Moderna has reduced its shipments of their COVID-19 vaccine to Canada by almost 55% this month, due to production issues at their European facilities.
Canada was originally meant to receive 1.2 million doses of the vaccine by next week, but now, the Massachusetts-based vaccine distributor, Moderna, is sending around 650,000 doses by the end of April.
Luckily, its mRNA counterpart, Pfizer, is poised to send more vaccine doses than originally intended.
Prime Minister Trudeau announced at a conference Friday morning that Canada will receive 8 million additional doses from Pfizer— 4 million more Pfizer doses in May, another 2 million in June, and 2 million more in July.
Both the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer are vital to BC’s age-based vaccination program.
The increased doses of Pfizer and the cuts from Moderna will not affect the age-based vaccination program, since Canada will receive at least 4 million more shots in May and June than anticipated, thanks to the Pfizer deal.
Canada is now expecting 6 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the second quarter of this year, from 17.8 million to 23.8 million doses.
To date, 1,235,863 doses of vaccines have been administered in British Columbia.
