Health Canada: Vaccine distribution ramping up as 11% of Canadians get first shots

The federal government says COVID-19 vaccine distribution will steadily increase in the coming weeks as Canada hits an important milestone.

Deputy chief public health officer, Dr. Howard Njoo, says the country has surpassed the 10 percent mark of residents over 18 who have received at least one shot.

More than 11 percent of the country’s adult population is now at least partially protected from the virus.

“To date over 4.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Canada,” said Njoo on Thursday.

“This marks an important milestone with more than 11 percent of eligible adult Canadians over the age of 18 having received at least one dose. This includes 60 percent of people over 80 years old and 19 percent of those aged 70 to 79 years.”

But Njoo warns that’s not enough to stop the spread, as more transmissible variants continue to pose a “significant threat” until more people are vaccinated.

Officials say a total of six million doses have been delivered to the provinces so far.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander in charge of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, says two million doses are set to be delivered next week – for a total of eight million by the end of March.

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Health Canada’s chief medical adviser says she’s “concerned” about reports of vaccine hesitancy among health-care workers.

Doctor Supriya Sharma says it’s important to dig into why hospital and long-term care workers are leery, and to give them more information addressing their worries.

“With health care workers just like with anyone else, we need to see if there is a reason why they are hesitating getting vaccinated, what that reason is, and then provide information to them to help empower them to make the best decision for themselves,” she said.

AstraZeneca update

Health Canada’s chief medical adviser says the three cases of blood clotting reported out of 300,000 Canadians who have received a Oxford-AstraZeneca shot have no apparent link to the vaccine.

Dr. Sharma says none of the cases resemble the very rare brain blood clot seen in a small number of patients in Europe.

She notes that blood clotting rates are the same or even higher among people who have not received the AstraZeneca vaccine than for those who have been jabbed.

Meantime, Fortin says there’s no indication that shipments of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada will be delayed.

The Maj.-Gen. says discussions are ongoing after reports that India has halted exports of Covishield — the version of AstraZeneca produced at the country’s Serum Institute.

India has so far supplied 500,000 doses of a planned two-million to Canada.