Canada is even behind America in vaccinating its citizens – at a glacial rate of 0.31 COVID-19 vaccines for every 100 people, according to a group that compiles data on the coronavirus.
No Canadian province has administered more than 50 percent of its doses received, although the country was one of the first to authorize vaccines, 680 News reported on Tuesday.
Canada’s online vaccination tracker shows that only 144,807 doses were administered out of the 420,450 received, as of Monday night. The country has a population of around 37.6 million.
The COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group found that the country was distributing vaccines at an alarmingly slow pace. In comparison, Israel, which is now leading the world in terms of vaccine administration, is 14 per 100 people.
The UK is at about 1.4 per 100 and the United States – where states have been late in administering vaccines – is seeing 1.3 vaccines per 100 residents.
Now health experts say it is crucial that Canada pick up the pace.
“Canada is definitely getting off to a slower start,” Kerry Bowman, professor of bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto, told Global News. “And with each passing day and week, we run the greatest risk of falling further and further behind.”
In Canada’s largest province, Ontario, 42,419 people had their first chance since December 14, Global News said.
Ryan Imgrund, a biostatistician who works with Ottawa Public Health, considered that number “embarrassingly” low.
“We have been waiting for this vaccine for a long time and it is still in freezers. We are still vaccinating only four (to five) thousand people a day (in Ontario). It’s a shame, ”he told the outlet. “With 5,000 people a day, it would take eight years to vaccinate all of Ontario at that rate.”
Like the US, two vaccines are approved for us in Canada – Pfizer-BioNTech, which was approved on December 9, and Moderna on December 23.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised that most Canadians will be vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 2021.