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The government has said just under 250,000 doses will arrive by the end of the year, which would mean a big boost in the supply arriving in the last week of December.
Kevin Smith, president of the University Health Network, which administered the Toronto vaccines, said the shots mark a victory for science.
“Today, really, we turned the corner,” Smith said. “I like to say this is the shot that will be heard around the world.”
Ontario
Ontario received 6,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine over the weekend and began giving them out on Monday.
Retired gen. Rick Hiller, who is leading Ontario’s vaccine task force, says half the shots will be administered this week, and the other half will be intentionally held back to give the same workers a required second dose 21 days later.
“Given the sort of information flow of what we know about the supply, which is very little at this time … we decided it was better to err on the side of caution,” he says.
An additional 90,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine are expected to arrive later this month and are to be provided to 14 hospitals in COVID-19 hot spots.
Hillier has said the province also expects to receive between 30,000 and 85,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine by the new year, pending its approval by Health Canada.
Ontario’s Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said that the hospitals receiving the first shots have made security arrangements to ensure the vaccine is safe from theft.
Quebec
The first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the province Monday.
Residents of long-term care homes and health-care workers are to have first priority.
The groups next in line are people living in private seniors residences, followed by residents of isolated communities and then anyone aged 80 and over.
