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OTTAWA – Provinces will receive two million doses of desperately needed vaccines in the days ahead, as the federal government pushes out the last of 9.5 million doses Canada has received so far.

The Liberals’ first target for the rollout was six million doses by the end of the first quarter, which it then increased to 9.5 million earlier this month. Pfizer has met its total and on Thursday the government was shipping 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca that arrived from the United States to provinces. Nearly 600,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine that were originally set to arrive last week, were set to land in Canada on Friday morning and be sent to provinces over the weekend.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin said Canada’s vaccine effort is going well now with deliveries set to continue at large volumes into the spring.

“Despite the bumps Canada has seen over the last three months, it’s important to note some great successes along the way,” he said. “By the end of this week, we can expect to have distributed approximately 9.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses across the country.”

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Government officials speaking on background said the government was paying a premium to its shipping companies to get the newly arriving vaccines out quickly over the holiday weekend.

Announcing a one-month lockdown for his province that begins Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was less critical of the federal government’s rollout than he has been recently.

He said he was confident millions of doses would arrive in his province in the coming months and the province had to close down so the vaccines could catch up.

“We need more time for our vaccine program to take hold,” he said. “We need more runway to let our vaccination rollout get to where we need it.”

Fortin announced 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would also be arriving next week, through the COVAX facility. COVAX is an international partnership that has developing countries purchase vaccines for both themselves and the developing world. Canada is one of a few developed nations to actually draw on the facility.

There are another 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca coming from the Serum Institute, an Indian manufacturer. A million of those doses were set to arrive in mid-April, and another 500,000 in May.

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Joelle Paquette, a director general with Public Services and Procurement Canada said they were expecting a delay, but could not provide any more details on that shortage.

“We’re working with the company on determining when the doses will arrive. We are expecting a delay in the shipment, but they are committed to meeting their contractual obligations,” she said.

As COVID-19 resurges in India, the country’s government has been less willing to see doses leave the country.

Paquette said they were also working with Johnson and Johnson to determine a delivery schedule for its one-dose vaccine. Procurement minster Anita Anand said she earlier this week they expected the first shipments in late April, but the company suffered a manufacturing setback on Wednesday.

Paquette said they don’t believe that issue will impact Canada’s shipments, but she did not have a specific date for deliveries.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is now limited to people over the age of 55 due to new evidence the vaccine can cause potentially fatal blood clots in younger people.

Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer said Canada has seen no incidents of the rare blood clots and is limiting the vaccines use purely as a precaution due to evidence in Europe.

He said he understands why Canadians in the approved age group could be hesitant to take the vaccine, but he encouraged people to see it as the system working.

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“I encourage you to recognize this latest adjustment to guidance in the vaccine administration, what it is an outcome of our robust safety monitoring system and ongoing global collaboration,” he said.

Njoo said the vaccine is safe and effective and prevents hospitalizations and deaths. He said any Canadian offered it should take it.

“I have no hesitation in saying that, if the vaccine was offered to me tomorrow I would take it. Certainly this vaccine along with the other three approved vaccines have all been shown to be very effective in preventing serious illness and death.”

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