Trudeau says he's 'frustrated' with the pace of vaccine rollout
Roughly 148,000 Canadians have received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he's troubled by the slow pace of theCOVID-19 vaccine rolloutand is vowing to raise the lacklustre vaccination numbers with premiers during a conference call later this week.
Canada alreadyhas received more than 424,050 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines but only 35 per cent of those doses have been administered by the provinces, with roughly 148,000 Canadians having received a shot so far.
Ontario's vaccination program has been particularly slow:just 50,000 doses have beenadministered in the provincesince the inoculation campaign began on Dec. 15. If the province continues to administer an average of just2,500 shots a day, it willtake over a decade to vaccinate all adults in the province.
"I think Canadians, including me, are frustrated to see vaccines in freezers and not in people's arms," Trudeau said. "That's why we're going to continue working closely with the provinces both to deliver vaccines to the provinces and to support them as they need it in terms of getting more vaccines out to vulnerable populations and front-line workers as quickly as possible."
Trudeau said he planned to raise the issue on aplanned first ministers' meeting call.
"Now is the time, with the new year upon us, to really accelerate, and that's certainly what I'll be talking with the premiers about on Thursday how the federal government can support and help [with] getting vaccines even more quickly out to Canadians," he said.
Ontario vows to ramp up distribution
Ontario Premier Doug Ford acknowledged Tuesday there have been some "bumps in the road" the provincial vaccination campaign was partially paused over the Christmas holidays but said he is expecting distributionto ramp up significantly over the coming days. The province administered 7,607 doses on Monday.
"Our message to the federal governmentis, just keep these vaccines coming because we're going to be running out," Ford said. "Once our machine gets going, and it's going ... watch out, there is no one who can compete against us."
Ontario's vaccination rate is currently among the lowest in the country on a per capita basis.
WATCH: Trudeau outlines frustrations withpace of vaccine rollout:
Alberta, B.C. and P.E.I. have so far administered the most doses per capita among the provinces, and Manitoba has administered the fewest.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallistersaid his province has disproportionately more people living in rural and remote areasand it's been difficult to reach those people with the Pfizer-BioNTech product, which has been largely limited to urban areas because of its cold-storage requirements.
Trudeau saidCanada is expected to have roughly one million doses of the vaccine on hand by the end of January enough to inoculate500,000 people with the two-dose vaccine regime.
He repeated his pledge to procure enough shots to vaccinate every adult Canadian who wants a shot by the end of September. The country will have to administer roughly100,000 doses a day for the next 268 days if it's going to vaccinate every adult in Canada by that time.
'This is unacceptable'
Canada's vaccination effort has so far been outpaced by those in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Israel, Denmark and the United Arab Emirates, among others. According to the latest data collated by the University of Oxford-based Our World in Data, Canada has, however, administered more shots per capita than G7 partners like Italy and France and middle-income countries like Argentina and Croatia.
While the U.S. has had logistical troubles of its own in the early days of this vaccination effort, the Americans have vaccinated nearly four times more peopleper capita than Canada.
More than 4.6 million people in the U.S. havereceived a shotalready. The federal government there has delivered 15.4 million doses to the states, territories and federal agencies.
West Virginia has already vaccinated every resident of a long-term care homewhile other smaller states, such as Connecticut, plan to finish the first round of doses this week.
Ford said today Ontario expects to have the staff and residents of thesefacilities in Toronto, Peel and York regionsvaccinated with the first dose of either the Pfizer orModerna product by Jan. 21.
208,000 doses perweek expected for next 3 weeks
Trudeau said the recent spike in outbreaks at Ontario long-term care facilities is "extremely concerning." According to the latest provincial data, there are 373 active outbreaks at long-term care homes and retirement residences.
"This is unacceptable. Our elders, our parents and grandparents built this country. They raised us and they deserve the best possible care," Trudeau said.
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander leading vaccine logistics at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Canada will receive 208,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccineeach week for the next three weeks, while171,000 Moderna shots are expected to arriveon January 11.
"We're working diligently with manufacturers and federal, provincial,territorial and Indigenous partners to ensure a continuous and predictable flow of vaccines. We're ready for a sustained tempo of vaccines throughout the month of January," Fortin said.
"While quantities seem limited, we are scaling up. This is a deliberate operation."
WATCH: Maj.-Gen. Fortin says provinces, territories will scale up vaccine distribution
Tam advises against stockpiling
Fortin said his team at the national operations centre will be sending more cold storage equipment freezers and thermal shippers, among other tools to help provinces setup more sites to administer the temperature-sensitive Pfizer vaccine. At the start of the vaccinationcampaign, there were just 14 sites nationwide where people could get the Pfizer shot.
"All of that will facilitate the different jurisdictions to administer the vaccines safely and effectively," he said.
While all provinces have started deliveringshots, most have stockpiled the second doseto ensure they have enough supply on hand.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said that because provincescan count ona specific number of dosesarriving each week for the foreseeable future,they can start to vaccinate as many people as possible.
"Soinitially, of course, given ... the supply situation and the uncertainties in December, people were holding back that seconddose. Now, with a bit more certainty in the supply, I think provinces are looking to not holdback that second dose because they want to more rapidly immunize thepopulation with that first shot," Tam said.
WATCH: Dr. Tam says Canada is committed to a two-dose vaccine regime
While some countries have floated the idea of simply administering one dose of the two-dose regime, or of administering the second dose well beyond the recommended 21-day timeline between shots, Tam said Canada is committed to following product guidelines from the manufacturers.She added, however, thatresearchers are studying the effectiveness of a single shot.
The work to distribute the vaccine comes at one of the darkest points of the pandemic. More than 16,000 people in Canada have died after contracting the virus.
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