OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada announced Tuesday a deal to secure an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which would allow for more than half of Canadians to be inoculated before summer.
The American and German pharmaceutical giants will also accelerate deliveries of their jointly-developed vaccine over the coming months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference.
“Between mid-April and June, we will have enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 million people,” or more than half of Canada’s population of 38 million, he said.
This — along with the parallel rollout of a Moderna vaccine in December — puts Canada “on track to have every Canadian who wants a vaccine receive one by September,” he added.
Hedging bets, Canada has ordered and placed options with seven pharmaceutical firms for more than 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in total.
As of Tuesday, Canada counted more than 673,000 Covid-19 cases and 17,000 deaths.
© Agence France-Presse
