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 Trudeau's Liberal government is under pressure over the slow roll
out of the vaccination program, caused in part by Pfizer Inc
temporarily cutting its promised deliveries and a temporary slowdown
of Moderna Inc doses.
"Obviously with this global supply chain around new products and
manufacturing scale-ups ... there are momentary disruptions week
over week. But we're still very much on track to get the commitments
fulfilled and get many vaccines to Canadians as quickly as
possible," Trudeau said in an interview.
Trudeau promised that tens of millions of doses would arrive in the
months to come and reiterated that every Canadian seeking
inoculation would be vaccinated by September.
As part of a bid to contain the spread of the disease, Canada and
the United States have closed their joint border to non-essential
travel. Trudeau said he and new U.S. President Joe Biden agreed on a
joint approach to fighting COVID-19.
"We're working very, very closely on all aspects of it from borders
to scientific research to indeed vaccines," he said.
"Our conversations are going to continue with the U.S. on supply
chains," he said, without giving details. Last year, tensions arose
between Canada and the administration of then President Donald Trump
over delays in the supply of personal protective equipment.
Last year Trump also signed an executive order aimed at keeping
U.S.-produced vaccines in the United States. Trudeau did not give a
direct answer when asked whether he would press Biden to scrap the
order.
Canada does not yet have a vaccine manufacturing facility of its own
and is reliant on foreign suppliers.
[to top of second column] |
 Separately, federal Procurement
Minister Anita Anand said deliveries of
AstraZeneca Plc's COVID-19 vaccine could begin
before the end of March, if Canada's health
regulator approves its use.
AstraZeneca Canada filed a rolling application
for its vaccine with Health Canada in October
and is waiting for approval from the drug
regulator. Health Canada is expected to complete
its review soon. In a separate
briefing, federal officials confirmed Canada's most recent shipment
of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine contained 22% fewer doses than
originally expected and said the next shipment, due in three weeks,
would also be short.
Fortin added Moderna was working in "good faith" to deliver those
doses as quickly as possible to Canada and noted the obstacles would
be temporary.
Shipments of Pfizer Inc's vaccine, meanwhile, are expected to ramp
up later this month.
Trudeau's government is also facing criticism over tapping into
COVAX, a global vaccine-sharing initiative meant to help low-income
countries buy doses. Canada will get 1.9 million AstraZeneca doses
from the initiative.
"Our government will never apologize for doing everything possible
to get Canadians vaccinated as quickly as possible," Deputy Prime
Minister Chrystia Freeland told lawmakers.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Allison Martell in
Toronto; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in
Ottawa; Editing by Mark Potter and Daniel Wallis)
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