Coronavirus: Canada to get vaccine later than other countries, PM Trudeau says

Ottawa, Canada - Meanwhile, the US plans to distribute 6.4 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine when it is cleared for emergency use.

Canadians can expect the first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in early 2021, likely later than those countries that can produce it themselves, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.

"Canada no longer has any domestic production capacity for vaccines," Trudeau told a news conference.

"We used to have it decades ago, but we no longer have it," he said, while "countries like the United States, Germany and the UK do have domestic pharmaceutical facilities, which is why they're obviously going to prioritise helping their citizens first."

Trudeau added, "we've begun to invest once again in ensuring that Canada will have domestic vaccine production capacity."

In case of another pandemic in the coming years, he said "we never want to be caught short again, without the ability to support Canadians directly."

The number of Covid-19 cases in Canada topped 340,000 on Tuesday, including 11,500 deaths.

The federal government has contracted with several pharmaceutical companies -- including AstraZeneca, Pfizer and BioNTech, Sanofi and GSK, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, Medicago and Moderna -- for more than 300 million vaccine doses, for its population of 38 million.

"We're working ahead of their deliveries to ensure their safety and efficacy, and Health Canada is currently analysing all data provided by the companies," Trudeau commented.

Meanwhile, the US plans to distribute 6.4 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the first week after it is cleared for emergency use, which is likely next month, officials said on Tuesday.

A committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) meets on December 10 to decide on whether to green light the medicine.

General Gustave Perna, chief operations officer for the government's Operation Warp Speed, told reporters some 40 million doses of vaccine would be available by the end of December.

That figure includes another vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes for Health, which announced some preliminary efficacy results last week and is also close to applying for emergency approval.

The Pfizer vaccine has ultra-cold long-term storage requirements of -70 degrees Celsius, and the company has developed special containers with dry ice to keep it cool for up to 15 days.

Perna said that 64 jurisdictions across the US -- including the 50 states, territories like the capital Washington and Puerto Rico and Indian reservations -- received their allocation numbers on Friday.

The amount they receive will be proportionate to their population size.

The federal government will issue recommendations for who should be prioritized -- likely the elderly, high-risk, and frontline workers -- but local authorities will make the final decision for themselves.

Vaccinations will begin in retirement homes within 48 hours of the emergency approval, health secretary Alex Azar said. The government has partnered with CVS Health for the retirement home programme.

• USA