Nearly 90% of Canadians willing to be vaccinated: poll

Many Ontarians expressed frustration at their inability to book vaccinations on Monday after the province accelerated second doses in areas where the Delta variant is spreading.

A new poll is suggesting the apparent high demand for a COVID-19 shot exists across the country.

The new data from the Angus Reid Institute suggests almost 9 in 10 Canadians are now either vaccinated, or willing to be vaccinated.

The number of people who are not sure about getting a shot, or said they want to wait, has fallen to the lowest point since Angus Reid began keeping track of the data last summer. Only 9 per cent of Canadians still say they will not get the vaccine under any circumstance.

Vaccine uncertainty remains the highest in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the two prairie provinces have a hesitancy rate (18%) that is almost double the rest of the nation.

Canada now leads all OECD nations in per cent of the population with a first dose, but the country falls all the way down to 31st when it comes to two dose coverage.

More than half of Canadians (57%) believe priority should now be equally placed on first and second doses. About one-quarter of respondents believe their province should continue prioritizing first doses – 16% say the second doses should become the focus.

Almost two in three Canadians now have one dose of vaccine, but slightly more than one in 10 have both doses.

Canada is pivoting to second doses rapidly, however, with 1.2 million people joining the fully vaccinated group just in the last four days.

The country’s vaccine rollout faced intense scrutiny in the early days but now more than half of respondents believe the federal government has done a good job securing vaccine doses. Just over one-quarter of respondents felt the same when asked in early March.

The country is poised to receive more than 8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses this week thanks to a massive infusion of shots from Moderna and a revised delivery schedule.

The federal government says the Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical firm will deliver a total of 5.8 million jabs in two separate shipments this week.