Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said he is frustrated to hear that a large number of Canada’s coronavirus vaccines remain sitting in freezers instead of being administered to the vulnerable population.
The comment comes after the Canadian government was recently criticized for its slow rollout of vaccines, falling behind countries like Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom in distribution.
“All Canadians, including me, are frustrated to see vaccines in freezers and not in people’s arms,” he said.
“That’s why we’re going to continue working closely with the provinces, both to deliver vaccines to the provinces and to support them as they need it in terms of getting more vaccines out to vulnerable populations and front line workers as quickly as possible,” Trudeau said.
He said over the past few weeks provinces have been able to ramp up vaccinations. But now that 2021 has arrived, vaccine delivery will “really accelerate.”
Trudeau has maintained that by September the country will have enough doses to vaccinate every Canadian who wants a shot.
Just over a million Canadians would need to be vaccinated every week to reach the goal of vaccinating the entire population by September.
So far both vaccines approved for use in Canada — Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech — require two doses to be administered, several weeks apart