Over 68 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will reach Canada by the end of July, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday.
Speaking from Rideau Cottage, where he is currently quarantining after his international trip, Trudeau said the jump in supply is thanks to new agreements with Moderna.
“Canada is getting millions more Moderna doses brought forward from our summer shipment schedule into June, and we’re locking in shipments for the first half of July… And we’re also getting extra doses from the U.S,” he said.
Outlining the specifics of the deliveries at a federal health ministers’ COVID-19 press conference soon after, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Canada will receive a total of more than 18 million doses of Moderna in this quarter, “well over the approximately 12M doses originally forecasted.” That’s on top of the one million doses that Canada received from the United States government Thursday, she said.
“We are pleased to report that Canada’s allocation from Moderna for the month of July is 11 million doses. What’s more, these deliveries will be front-end loaded with nearly five million of those doses actually arriving before the end of June and the balance is to be delivered in the first half of July,” Anand said.
Although deliveries from Pfizer have been tweaked, Anand said Canada will still receive 9.1 million doses in July.
“That has not changed,” she said. “However, the deliveries in the first two weeks will now be lower than originally planned, and deliveries in the last two weeks will be higher to compensate and to make up the difference.”
Overall, Canada is now going to receive more than 50 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of June and over 68 million doses by the end of July.
–More to come…
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