Moe alarmed by news Pfizer vaccine deliveries to Canada being cut back

The federal government said Friday global supply issues are temporarily delaying Canada’s vaccine shipment from Pfizer-BioNTech — news that Premier Scott Moe called “very concerning.”

“Saskatchewan has been able to increase our pace of vaccinations in recent days, but our planning is based on the federal government providing a reliable weekly supply of vaccines,” Moe said in a statement.

“The federal government has advised Saskatchewan to expect 11,700 Pfizer doses a week throughout the month of February and we have been planning our vaccine rollout based on this schedule, including second dosages. If this has changed, they need to advise us immediately.

“This also raises the importance of the federal government quickly reviewing and approving additional vaccine candidates including the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is already being administered in other countries. Health Minister Paul Merriman will be raising this urgent matter on a call with the federal and provincial ministers (Friday) morning.”

To date, Health Canada has only approved the use of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand said production issues in Europe will temporarily reduce Pfizer’s promised doses to Canada, as well as all countries that receive vaccines from Pfizer’s European facility.

While the company assured Canada it will still be able to deliver four million doses by the end of March, Anand admitted that is no longer guaranteed.

“This is unfortunate. However, such delays and issues are to be expected when global supply chains are stretched well beyond their limits,” Anand said at a news conference Friday. “It’s not a stoppage.”

Canada has received about 380,000 doses of the vaccine so far, and was supposed to get another 400,000 this month and almost two million doses in February.

The news comes as Ottawa released federal projections that suggest the pandemic may soon exceed levels seen in the first wave, rising to 19,630 cumulative deaths and 10,000 daily infections in a little over a week.

The modelling shows total cases could grow to nearly 796,630 from about 694,000, and that another 2,000 people could die by Jan. 24.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam urged sustained vigilance as a long-range forecast suggested rapid growth would continue without “quick, strong and sustained” measures.

Tam said that’s especially so in national hotspots of Quebec and Ontario, where a steady increase in hospitalizations has strained the health system’s ability to keep up with critical care demands. The projections do not take into account Quebec’s recently implemented four-week curfew or Ontario’s new stay-at-home orders.

Tam emphasized the need to reduce community spread to help relieve some of the pressure on hospitals and long-term care homes.

“The vaccine alone is not going to make a dent in some of that,” she said. “As the older population in long-term care receive the vaccines we’re going to look very carefully to see if the serious illnesses and the deaths go down, but that’s also a factor of what’s happening in the community.”

— With files from The Canadian Press