Ford reaching out to international allies as AstraZeneca shipment to Ontario likely delayed
Posted April 19, 2021 4:28 pm.
Last Updated April 19, 2021 5:03 pm.
The Office of the Premier says he was notified Monday to “be prepared” for delays to the two shipments of AstraZeneca vaccine that were expected from the federal government later this month and next month.
This after Moderna shipments to Canada have already been cut and delayed.
“As we look to expand our rollout of AstraZeneca to younger age groups and into more pharmacies, any delays to vaccine shipments would be devastating for Ontario right now as we battle the third wave of this pandemic,” said spokeswoman Ivana Yelich in a statement.
She said the information is yet to be confirmed, but in the meantime, Premier Doug Ford is increasing efforts to source more vaccines directly from international allies.
Ford has reportedly already spoken with the Consulate General of the United States and Canada’s ambassador to Denmark who are passing the request upwards to their administrations.
Ontario officials have also reached out to the ambassador to Norway and Ford is set to speak with the EU ambassador to Canada and the High Commissioner of India later Monday to “ask for any extra AstraZeneca vaccines.”
On Friday, Moderna said it will be cutting its vaccine shipment to Canada by half. The vaccines that were scheduled for delivery at the end of April will now be 650,000 doses instead of 1.2 million.
Further, the company said that of the 12.3 million doses scheduled to arrive in the second quarter of the year, one to two million will now be pushed back to the third quarter.
Procurement minister Anita Anand said Moderna advised that the changes are due to a slower than expected ramp-up of the drugmaker’s production capacity and is affecting a number of countries.
