Canada Vaccine Distribution Czar Says No New Deliveries of Pfizer Vaccine Next Week

TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2021) Canada will not receive any new shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine next week, the country's vaccine distribution czar, Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin, said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Last week, it was announced that Pfizer will curtail deliveries of its vaccine to Canada amid production restructuring at its European facility.

"Next week's deliveries have been deferred by Pfizer in their entirety," Fortin said.

Fortin said that he anticipates considerable decline in delivery over the next three weeks - up to a 50 percent reduction - resulting in a significant impact across all provinces. Currently, Canada receives 82 percent of what was officials have planned for, he added.

Despite the production issues impacting deliveries across the European Union as well, reports indicate that Europe will be impacted far less substantially than Canada. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to draw comparisons to the vaccination regimes of other nations.

Last Thursday, Fortin conceded that Canada will likely experience a shortage of the coronavirus vaccine doses through to the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Some jurisdictions, including the provinces of Alberta and Ontario, have expressed concern with dwindling vaccine stocks, and affected health care providers have begun canceling inoculation appointments.