Health Canada approves Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
Canadian doctors say 'long journey ahead' to combat virus despite Pfizer vaccine approval
Health Canada has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in this country, and the first doses could be administered as early as next week.
It’s a critical moment in Canada’s fight against the novel coronavirus, as it is the first vaccine to receive the green light.
The federal health agency has deemed the vaccine effective and safe for use on Canadians, which means that the team responsible for the rollout of vaccines can now begin the process of administering them.
“We expect vaccines to arrive maybe as early as Monday. It takes time to prepare the vaccine,” said Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the top military general leading the rollout from the Public Health Agency of Canada, saying the first shots could be given by the middle of next week.
The approval comes alongside an update to the timeline for national mass vaccination effort. The plan is now to begin vaccinating the general population in April 2021, and have all Canadians immunized by the end of next year, with one of the several vaccines under consideration.
“This is a big deal,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons Wednesday afternoon, thanking doctors, researchers and scientists who worked to approve the first COVID-19 vaccine. “We will see 30,000 vaccines begin to arrive next week, with many more on the horizon. But we are not through this yet, we’ve got a tough winter to get through and I know we’re going to be able to get through it together.”
“Health Canada has determined that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine meets the Department’s stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada,” said Health Canada in a statement, alongside a series of documents related to the decision, with the promise of more information about the clinical trial in the weeks ahead.
n a press conference, Health Canada’s chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma called the approval a “critical milestone in our fight against COVID-19 and in our efforts to provide every Canadian with access to a vaccine,” and said extensive work from a range of scientific experts went into issuing this approval.
