With several COVID-19 vaccine candidates around the world entering the final stages of clinical trials and regulatory approval, health authorities in Canada released today preliminary guidance on policy for who will be first in line for early immunization.
The guidance by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), an expert advisory group, provided recommendations to the Public Health Agency of Canada on targeting key populations for early COVID-19 vaccination.
Top of the list for early immunization are those at high risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 and those most likely to transmit COVID-19 to them, as well as workers essential to maintaining the COVID-19 response, according to the guidance published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal today.
The list of key populations to be targeted by the first wave of immunizations also includes those contributing to the maintenance of other essential services for the functioning of society; and those whose living or working conditions put them at elevated risk of infection and where infection could have disproportionate consequences, including Indigenous communities.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said health authorities remain cautiously optimistic that safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines will be available in the first quarter of 2021.
It is also important for everyone to know that there will be a limited supply of the vaccines at first, she said.
“Federal, provincial and territorial governments will have to make important decisions on how to use the initial vaccine supply to protect high-risk populations and those who help keep our pandemic response, society and economy running,” Tam said.
“We know Canadians will understand the need to prioritize some groups during the early weeks of COVID-19 vaccine roll-out until there is enough vaccine for everyone who wants it.”
The federal government has already reached procurement agreements with drugmakers AstraZeneca, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Pfizer, Moderna and Medicago for a total of 358 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
Health Canada officials announced in early October that they received the first submission to approve a COVID-19 vaccine developed by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in partnership with the University of Oxford.
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