To date, 17 per cent of Canadians have received at least their first dose of vaccine, said the country’s minister of Public Services and Procurement.
Anita Anand said Canada stands seventh in the G20 in terms of doses administered per 100 people., and that procurements and deliveries are accelerating rapidly.
A total of 9.9 million vaccines had been delivered by end of March, and the second quarter will look much different, with 6 million doses expected in April, 7 million doses in May, with 44 million doses overall by the end of June, Anand said.
“We have moved 22 million doses from later quarters to earlier quarters in the year, and we will keep working to aggressively push suppliers to deliver more doses earlier and earlier to Canadians,” Anand said.
Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer of Canada, said the race between vaccines and variants is at a critical point. The modelling prediction from two weeks ago, that forecasted a resurgence, is playing out in the data we see right now, with case counts plotting along the strong resurgence trajectory.
“It’s clear we need stronger control to combat variants of concern,” said Tam.
To date, more than 1 million cases of COVID-19, including 23,200 deaths, have been reported in Canada.
In the past week, there has been an average of 6,800 new cases and 30 deaths reported daily.
Last week, an average of 2,500 people with COVID-19 were being treated in hospitals, representing a seven-per-cent increase over the past week, and 860 were being treated in ICUs, which was a 23-per-cent increase over the previous week.
“Over the past week, the number of new variant cases has more than doubled,” said Tam. “To date, almost 25,000 cases have been reported across Canada.
“All these trends tell us that, even as vaccines are bringing us closer to ending this crisis, we cannot afford to give this virus an inch. In areas with epidemic growth, the only way to get out of this is the hard way, by continuing to stay home, maintaining distance and wearing a mask when we need to go out.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to stay the course in following public health measures.
“Our path out of thiws pandeimc is vaccines, so that’s my focus,” he said. “So far, we’ve delivered more than 10.5 million doses to the provinces and territories. Every day, more grandparents and parents are sharing their vaccine selfies in family group chats. Every day, more Canadians are safer.”
Until the end of May, Canada is scheduled to receive 1 million doses a week of the Pfizer vaccine, which will increase to 2 million doses a week in June, from Pfizer alone, he said.
Canada will receive 2 million doses of the Moderna vaccine in April, and 3 million doses in May, and Trudeau said he is anticipating another 7 million doses in June.
Trudeau also announced Canada is extending the support of the Canadian Red Cross until the end of September for up to 27 long-term care homes in Ontario.
“This third wave is very serious, and we need to hang in there to allow the vaccines to take hold and to get to a much more normal summer,” Trudeau said. “I understand the frustration, anxiety and concern across the country in seeing these numbers rising. We don’t want to be in this third wave, but we’re here. We’ve been working closely with provinces and territories to make sure they have the resources to make the right decisions for them.”
Minister Anand said she has been speaking regularly with Johnson and Johnson about their vaccine. Canada is one of only nine countries with a contract with Johnson and Johnson, and the US is the only one right now being served with that vaccine.
“We will have a delivery schedule hopefully next week, with deliveries hopefully by end of April,” said Anand.