Maple Ridge (Josh Olund BCIT Radio A&E) – After a bumpy startup to the vaccination rollout,Canada has started to pick up steam and has been making good progress towards vaccinating the general population.Canada is expecting an additional 2 million doses of Pfizer-BioTech’s vaccine this week, which means more Canadians are going to be given more access to their first dose if they are wanting to do so.
The shipment is one of many. In April, Canada had announced it will be getting more of the Pfizer shot’s in the following months, with 8 million more doses secured on top of what was already brought into the country.The latest deal means Canada is going to receive 4million doses of the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine in May, another 2 million in June, and 2 million more in July.“For next month alone, this will come out to about double the Pfizer doses we were originally expecting. All told, we’ll be receiving eight million doses in May and almost 12 million in June from Pfizer alone,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on April 16. Canada also received a record one million doses from Moderna last week.As of May 10, almost 40 percent of Canadians have received their first dose of a COVID-19vaccine.“If enough people get vaccinated and assuming vaccine rollout proceeds as planned, by mid Summer, at least 75 percent of adults aged 18 years and older will have received their first dose,” said Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam.
Tam also noted that Canada needs to hit at least 75percent if we want to have a summer with fewer public health measures.“These models give us hope, illustrating that there is a safe way to lift most restrictive public health measures by this summer if enough people get vaccinated,”
”Canada is now one of the top countries in the G20 in regards to vaccinations, administrating 300,000 shots every day – which is a huge increase compared to a month ago. With several countries starting to reopen amid vaccine rollouts, Canada is keeping a close watch on these foreign situations.
Trudeau has stated that Canadians could once again be travelling internationally by the summer, noting Canada will provide any documents needed with some form of certification to prove vaccinations against COVID-19.“As people start to travel again, perhaps this summer if everything goes well, it would make sense for us to align with partners around the world on some sort of proof of vaccination or vaccine certification,” said Trudeau.“We are now working with allies, particularly in Europe,on [vaccine passports or documentation]. But ultimately it is up to every country to determine what requirements they expect from incoming travellers.”
