By Canadian Press

Trudeau to visit Pfizer on final day of international pandemic trip, begin quarantine

Jun 15, 2021 | 1:03 AM

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is spending the last day of his first international trip in more than a year visiting a plant that played a pivotal role in Canada’s early rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

He will visit the manufacturing facility in Puurs, Belgium, which produced Canada’s supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine until the United States started shipping doses early last month.

Canada faced some bumps in its vaccination campaign earlier this year when a slowdown at the production plant in Belgium disrupted delivery plans.

This week alone, Canada is set to receive 2.4 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, which has been consistently delivering large weekly shipments since mid-March.

Trudeau is also set to hold a press conference with European leaders following a Canada-EU summit the previous day, where they were set to talk about trade, climate change and critical minerals.

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Later Tuesday, Trudeau will fly back to Canada, where his office says he will begin a 14-day quarantine, first in an Ottawa hotel until he receives a negative COVID-19 test result. 

Trudeau spent the past few days also attending summits for NATO allies and G7 leaders. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2021.

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press