Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen during a news conference in Ottawa, Friday, April 9, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Canada expects to receive 44M doses of COVID-19 vaccines by July, says Trudeau

Canada expects to receive 44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca by the end of June, enough to administer at least one shot to every Canadian, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday.

Speaking to reporters during his regular COVID-19 briefing in Ottawa, Trudeau said the federal government has already delivered more than 10.5 million doses to the provinces and territories.

Canada is in the “ramp-up phase” of the vaccine rollout, he added.

“Until the end of May, we’re scheduled to receive a million doses a week of the Pfizer vaccine,” Trudeau said.

“In June, we will have almost two million doses a week delivered from Pfizer alone. For Moderna, we’ll be receiving two million doses in April, and almost three million in May. And we are anticipating to receive over seven million in June.”

The announcement by Trudeau and federal health officials came as experts are warning that Canada is losing the race between vaccination and the spread of variants of concern. And hospital beds are filling up quickly with COVID-19 patients once again.

Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam looks at a giant screen showing data during a technical briefing on the COVID pandemic in Canada Friday Jan. 15, 2021 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said Friday over one million cases of COVID-19, including 23,200 deaths have been reported in Canada since the beginning of the pandemic.

Over the past week, there have been an average of over 6,800 new cases and 30 deaths reported daily and the number of people experiencing severe and critical illness continues to rise, Tam said.

Last week, an average of over 2,500 people with COVID-19 were being treated in hospitals across Canada each day, representing a 7-per-cent increase over the previous week. And 860 of these people were being treated in intensive care units, which is 23 per cent higher than last week, Tam added.

“The increasing predominance of variants of concern is the major contributing factor to these worrying trends, resulting in accelerated spread and more severe illness, including among younger and previously healthy adults,” Tam said.

Over the past week, the number of new variant cases has more than doubled, she added. To date, almost 25,000 variant of concern cases have been reported across Canada, with the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom continuing to account for over 90 per cent.

But the P.1 variant first discovered in Brazil is also on the rise in Canada with 1,039 cases reported so far, Tam said. And the B.1.351 variant first found in South Africa is also picking up steam with 345 cases, she added.

“All these trends tell us that, even as vaccines are bringing us closer to ending this crisis, we cannot afford to give this virus an inch,” Tam said.

“In areas with epidemic growth, the only way to get out of this crisis is the hard way, by staying home as much as we can, and consistently maintaining our distance and wearing a mask when we must go out.”

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