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By Canadian Press

Delivery delay

Shipments of Canadian COVID-19 vaccines to be delayed

Jan 15, 2021 | 8:06 AM

OTTAWA – There’s going to be a temporary delay in Canadian shipments of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech.

The companies say they are temporarily cutting back vaccine deliveries to Canada because of issues with their European production lines.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand says that while the company says it will still be able to deliver four million doses by the end of March, that is no longer guaranteed. Anand says it’s unfortunate, but such delays and issues are to be expected when global supply chains are stretched well beyond their limits.

Canada has received about 380-thousand doses of the vaccine so far, and was supposed to get another 400-thousand this month and almost two million doses in February.

The news comes as Ottawa released federal projections that suggest the pandemic may soon exceed levels seen in the first wave, with the number of deaths rising to 19-thousand, 630 by January 24th.

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Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam is urging sustained vigilance as a long-range forecast suggests that rapid growth in infections will continue without “quick, strong and sustained” measures.

Tam says that’s especially the case in the national hot spots of Quebec and Ontario, where a steady increase in hospitalizations has strained the health system’s ability to keep up with critical care demands.