Vancouver, January 12 Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau announced in Ottawa on the 12th local time that the Canadian government has purchased an additional 20 million doses of the novel coronavirus vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and German BioNTech. .
This brings the official order of Canada to 40 million doses of the vaccine.
Coupled with the official approval of Canada and the ongoing inoculation of another American Moderna vaccine, the total number of orders for the two vaccines reached 80 million doses, which is enough for everyone in the country to inject two doses.
Trudeau said he would strive to vaccinate all those who want to be vaccinated by September.
Prior to this increase, Canada has pre-purchased about 414 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from many pharmaceutical companies around the world.
This amount is about five times the demand of its population.
Despite the recent calls by WHO to countries that have ordered more vaccines than they need and control the global vaccine supply to donate or distribute their surplus vaccines immediately, Canadian government officials responded to the country’s Global Mail inquiry that it is too early to formulate any plan to redistribute the surplus vaccines obtained.
A spokesman for Canada’s Minister for International Development Gould said that the distribution of vaccines is still in its early stages in Canada and other countries, and the question about the country’s surplus of vaccines is hypothetical. He also said that Canada is currently the second largest donor to the COVID-19 vaccine implementation plan (COVAX).
Canadian officials earlier predicted that 6 million doses of vaccines could be received by the end of March this year.
But the current vaccine delivery time is a problem. To date, of the approximately 549,000 doses of vaccine distributed by the federal government to various places, 380,000 have been completed. Several provinces said that existing vaccines have been or are about to run out.
The Canadian federal government said it was communicating with vaccine manufacturers to speed up delivery.
Anand, Canada’s Minister of Public Service and Procurement, said that Pfizer would advance the quota originally scheduled for the third quarter to the second quarter.
Trudeau also announced that the border movement restrictions between Canada and the United States will be extended until February 21.
In response to the coronavirus epidemic, “non-essential cross-border travel” for tourism and leisure purposes has been banned between the two countries from March 21, and trade exchanges will not be affected. The “limited closure” order is updated every month.
Ontario, the largest province facing a severe epidemic, declared on the 12th that it would enter a provincial emergency for at least 28 days from now on, and began to implement a “stay-at-home order” from the 14th, requiring people to stay in their homes unless they have the necessary reasons.
The province will strengthen law enforcement inspection and punishment to this end.
Schools in several regions, including Toronto, will also be temporarily postponed to mid-February.
Governor Ford warned that the latest model data showed that the province was in crisis and the overwhelmed health care system was on the verge of collapse.
Ontario has imposed a provincewide ban, restricting people’s gatherings and closing many “non-essential” businesses since December 26, 2020, but the province’s case growth momentum has not been significantly curbed.
The Canadian government revealed on the 11th that it intends to introduce new regulations by legislative means to prevent nationals who travel “non-essential” cross-border during the epidemic from receiving various relief subsidies.
As of the evening of January 12, Canada had reported more than 674,000 cases, with a new 6,294 new case in a single day; about 576,000 recovered cases, 17,233 deaths and 80,793 active cases. At present, the positive test rate is 4.3%.
In Quebec and Ontario, which have the highest number of cases, the cumulative cases are nearly 233,000 and more than 222,000 respectively. Quebec has been the first in the country to implement a one-month curfew from January 9.
