Ontario to receive 2.4M doses of Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines
Posted November 18, 2020 11:38 am.
Last Updated November 18, 2020 11:51 am.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot says Canada is expected to receive four million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine between January and March and two million doses of Moderna’s vaccine.
Of this, Ontario will get 1.6 million of the Pfizer vaccine and 800,000 of the Moderna vaccine.
Pfizer announced Wednesday their vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95 per cent and will be seeking approval “within days” from U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of the vaccine.
This comes after a second experimental COVID-19 vaccine by Moderna Inc. produced strong early results, saying its vaccine appears to be 94.5 per cent effective, according to preliminary data from an ongoing study.
Elliott made the announcement during Question Period in the Ontario legislature.
“We are expecting that we will receive shipments from both Pfizer and Moderna,” Elliott confirmed. “Our significant issues, with respect to the Pfizer vaccine in particular, it needs to be stored at – 75 C and Moderna at – 20 C.”
“People do have to receive two doses, 21 days apart. This is a major logistical challenge, but we have an entire group in the Ministry of Health right now, that are planning for that,” Elliott said.
“As soon as we receive those shipments from the federal government, it will be ready for distribution,” she added.
