Canada is expecting 300,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine during the last week of April, Public Services and Procurement Canada Minister Anita Anand said during a press conference Friday.
“Canada will receive an initial shipment of approximately 300,000 doses during the week of April 27 to be delivered to the provinces at the beginning of May with more substantial deliveries coming in the later part of this quarter and into the summer,” Anand said.
The announcement came on the heels of Moderna cutting down on shipment to Canada, starting this month. The country was due to receive 1.2 million doses of the vaccine by the end of April, but will now receive only 650,000.
The reduction is due to a “slower than anticipated ramp-up of their production capacity and is affecting a number of countries,” according to Anand.
However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new deal with Pfizer on Friday for eight million additional doses of their vaccine in an attempt to boost Canada’s mass vaccination efforts.
By this new agreement, Canada will receive four million additional Pfizer doses in May, followed by two million in June and another two million in July.
“For next month alone, this will come out to about double the Pfizer doses we were originally expecting. All told, we’ll be receiving eight million doses in May and almost 12 million in June from Pfizer alone,” Trudeau said at a press conference.
“That’s a lot of numbers so here’s the bottom line — more doses arriving sooner means more people getting the vaccine faster.”
So far, Canada has pre-ordered 10 million doses of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine, with options to order up to 28 million more.
The country has also continued on with rollout plans for the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine despite concerns over a possible link to blood clots.
When asked at a House of Commons committee meeting earlier this week if Canada’s contract with the manufacturers should be cancelled due to reports of blood clot, Anita Anand maintained that there was no reason to do so unless the Health Canada says otherwise.
“Health Canada has deemed both J&J and AstraZeneca — and Pfizer and Moderna — safe and effective, and as a result we will continue with our procurements of these vaccines,” she said.