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Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy director of public health, said at a news conference on Thursday that the National Immunization Advisory Committee (NACI) determined that the time between two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID- vaccines 19 could be extended up to 42 days.
“Currently, there is a limited supply of these vaccines in Canada,” said Dr. Njoo. “While NACI continues to recommend that a full range of vaccines be offered according to authorized schedules, NACI recognizes that provincial and territorial governments will have to determine the best way to manage supply in their respective jurisdictions.”
“NACI analysis indicates that, in exceptional circumstances, jurisdictions may consider an extended interval between doses, based on current and projected epidemiological status, health system capacity and vaccine delivery and management logistics, preferably within 42 days. ”
Dr. Njoo added that the vaccine’s effectiveness should be the same for up to 42 days, but there is no data on the vaccine’s effectiveness after that point. According to Health Canada authorization, the second injection of Pfizer-BioNTech should be administered at 21 days and the second dose of Moderna vaccine at 28 days.
“If provincial or territorial vaccination programs make the decision to … go beyond 42 days, I think it would be very important … to actually collect data, monitor populations to see what the overall vaccine effectiveness is, in the vaccinated population ”Said Dr. Njoo.
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, vice president of logistics and operations for the Canadian Public Health Agency and head of Canada’s vaccine distribution efforts, said more than 380,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to provinces and territories this week.
A total of 208,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will arrive in Canada and 171,000 doses of the Modern vaccine.
Canada expects to receive the same amount of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine every week until the end of January. The forecast is that 230,400 doses of the Modern vaccine will arrive in the first week of February.
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin said that as Canada enters phase two of the vaccine distribution plan, also known as a “phase ramp,” an average of more than one million doses per week is expected to begin arriving in April.
He said that Canada has a “shortage of vaccines in the first quarter”, but still expects the country to receive six million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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