Provinces discussed their respective COVID-19 vaccine rollout plans and urged patience following Monday’s announcement that Canada is expecting to receive up to 249,000 doses of a vaccine by the end of December.
Health Canada is expected to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine this week, and the first shipments are on track to arrive next week. Immunization for this vaccine requires two doses administered weeks apart, so the initial batch would be enough for nearly 125,000 Canadians.
Pfizer advises that its vaccine be stored in a freezer at –80C to –60C or in a thermal container at temperatures of –90C to –60C. The vaccine is to be delivered to 14 sites across Canada, with doses divided up on a per-capita basis among the provinces.
Here’s a look at how provinces and territories are planning for the arrival of the first round of vaccines.
Ontario
Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, who is leading Ontario’s vaccine task force, said the province should be able to vaccinate 1.2 million people during the first three months of 2021 — but noted that there is still uncertainty around the initial rollout and there is no firm timeline yet.
WATCH | Rick Hillier discusses Ontario’s vaccine rollout plan:
Retired General Rick Hillier says Ontario hopes to provide an “efficient” and “equitable” COVID-19 vaccination program, to provide every eligible person across the province with the opportunity to voluntarily get vaccinated. Watch the video for more details about the province’s three-phased plan of rolling out the vaccine. 3:08
“Every single day we learn something more about the characteristics and the properties of the vaccine and one of things is that the stability data when it’s moved is uncertain,” Hillier said, noting that the 85,000 doses will be available in the province this month. “As of right now, we may be restricted somewhat in moving it after we receive it.”
Premier Doug Ford said Monday that vulnerable seniors, their caregivers and health-care workers will be among the first to receive the vaccine. Adults in Indigenous communities, residents of retirement homes and recipients of chronic home health care will also be priority groups, but it may be April before the shots are widely available to others.
Hillier said the vaccine will be more broadly available to the public starting in April during the second phase of the rollout, and it will take between six to nine months to distribute across the province. “People are going to have to be patient that their turn will come,” he said.
Quebec
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said the province should receive four boxes of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by next Monday, which will allow for 2,000 people at two unspecified long-term care homes to be vaccinated.
Between 22,000 and 28,000 Quebecers will be immunized against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, as the province receives more doses of the vaccine, Dubé said.
WATCH | Christian Dubé discusses Quebec’s rollout plan
Residents of long-term care homes and health-care workers will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Quebec. 1:53
“Yes, today’s news is good news, but let’s not let it distract us. We have to stay focused,” he said.
Residents of long-term care homes and health-care workers will be the first to be vaccinated, he said, followed by people living in private seniors’ residences and those in isolated communities, including Indigenous communities. Those four groups represent about 547,000 people living in Quebec.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said the province will get 1,950 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine next week, with more to come later.
“Thank God,” he said. “Hope is on the horizon … [but] we are not there yet,” he said.
Furey said the vaccination task force announced on Dec. 4 was working on logistics of who would get inoculated first. While there isn’t a defined list yet for the province, the premier pointed to the guidelines from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) in regards to vaccination priority.
Furey also said last week that vaccination will be “highly suggested” but not mandatory.
(CBC News)
New Brunswick
A spokesperson for New Brunswick’s Department of Justice and Public Safety said up to 1,950 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine should arrive “around Dec. 14 as part of the first of two shipments that may occur this month.”
Those doses would be enough to vaccinate 975 people.
The province is working to “identify the priority groups that will receive the vaccine in the first phase of vaccinations based on recommendations from the federal government,” spokesperson Shawn Berry said in an email.
“Any doses that do arrive ahead of January will be provided to members of those priority groups based on New Brunswick’s operational plan.”
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia’s Department of Health said in a statement to CBC News that the province is expected to receive 1,950 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next week.
Before that, the province will participate in a dry-run exercise with the manufacturer, the federal government, Dalhousie University and health system partners to prepare for the vaccine’s arrival. The exercise will test shipping, delivery, tracking and storage, but will not include the vaccine.
Prince Edward Island
Since provincial allocation will be done on a per-capita basis, P.E.I. is expected to receive just over 1,000 doses of the first allotment of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
“We’re a small jurisdiction, so we will be able to get around and service Islanders probably more quickly than any other jurisdiction will,” P.E.I. Premier Dennis King said on Nov. 27.
Manitoba
Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, said the province is prepared to receive any doses the federal government ships its way, but expects they would be “very limited in quantity.”
“The sooner we are able to receive the vaccine, the better,” he said. “We’re certainly prepared to receive vaccine at any time now, but we just need to set up the expectations that this is going to be a very limited supply, especially early on. And so it will be very minimal scope on who we can immunize with it.”
Getting the vaccine out to everyone who needs it will be “a huge undertaking,” Roussin said. He added that planning for the rollout has made significant progress and he expects details to be announced in the near future.
Last week, Premier Brian Pallister said Manitoba had acquired one of the freezers needed to store the Pfizer/BioNTech; the low storage temperature poses logistical challenges for distributing the vaccine to remote areas.
WATCH | Experts discuss the COVID-19 vaccine rollout:
As Canada prepares to distribute millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh and David Levine, who managed the H1N1 vaccine rollout for Montreal, say this vaccination campaign won’t be without challenges. 3:05
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the province has an ultra-low-temperature freezer that’s required to store the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and that Saskatchewan’s vaccine distribution plan will be revealed Tuesday.
Moe says vaccinations will happen in a staggered approach as the province receives more doses throughout 2021. He said the plan is to start with inoculating health-care workers and vulnerable residents, like seniors living in long-term care homes.
Alberta
Alberta is expected to receive 3,900 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next week, which would be enough to inoculate 1,950 people.
The provincial government has said it will prioritize frontline health-care workers and vulnerable demographics, such as seniors in long-term care.
WATCH | BioNTech says its vaccine could ship within 24 hours of Health Canada approval:
Sean Marett, chief business and chief commercial officer for BioNTech, says once Canada approves the Pfizer rollout, the vaccine could ship within 24 hours. 9:41
British Columbia
Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s public health officer, said the province expects to receive its first delivery of the vaccine next week.
“It will be a start of our program, a very important start, but just a small amount to start with to ensure that we get our logistics going,” Henry said. “But our ability to start protecting elders and seniors, particularly in our care homes and the health-care workers who care for them, will be an important step forward in our COVID-19 struggle.”
Henry said she and other provincial officials will deliver a full briefing on B.C.’s vaccine rollout plan later in the week.
Yukon, N.W.T. and Nunavut
Trudeau said the “more significant logistical challenges” associated with distributing the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine means it won’t be going to northern communities right away. He said territorial residents would be among those to be inoculated with the first three million doses, which are expected in the beginning of 2021 and would also include the Moderna vaccine.
“We have worked very closely with the premiers in the northern territories, as well as Indigenous leaders across the country. We know that they are a priority population,” Trudeau said. He said the first three million doses would be a mix of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, said last week that the territory is more likely to get the Moderna vaccine because the Pfizer vaccine’s strict storage and shipping requirements aren’t appropriate for remote communities.
Neither the Northwest Territories health department, nor Yukon’s office of the chief medical officer of health, immediately responded to a request for comment.
WATCH | Nunavut’s top doctor calls Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine ‘impractical’ for remote areas:
Given the extreme cold storage requirements for shipping the Pfizer vaccine, Nunavut’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Michael Patterson says it’s impractical for remote communities. 0:19
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
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