First vaccine doses coming this month: Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the first COVID-19 vaccine doses are on track to arrive this month, as tough new measures took effect in Prince Edward Island and Ontario hit a new daily case record today.

Trudeau says Ottawa has reached an agreement with Pfizer to have up to 249,000 doses delivered, pending Health Canada approval, and that the first shipments could come next week.

Watch live: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, joined by Minister Anita Anand, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo, and Major-General Dany Fortin, makes an announcement. https://t.co/nQTxIZ2lQi

— CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) December 7, 2020

"It has been a difficult year, and we are not out of this crisis yet," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday at a news conference in Ottawa.

"But now, vaccines are coming."

Everything hinges on Health Canada approving the vaccine from American-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. A decision is expected before the end of this week.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, named vice-president of logistics at the Public Health Agency of Canada to oversee the vaccine rollout plan, said it will only be a day or two between when the vaccines arrive and the first people get inoculated.

The vaccines will be shipped directly to 14 sites in the 10 provinces, and provincial governments will then distribute them internally. There are two delivery sites in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, and one in each of the other six provinces. None of the early shipments are headed for the territories.

There is still limited information available on where the first shipments will go and who will be first to get vaccinated.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunizations last week recommended priority be given to residents and workers in long-term care homes, front-line health workers, people over the age of 80 and people living in Indigenous communities.

However the Pfizer vaccine has to be kept frozen below -70 C, which means the logistics of sending them to remote communities make doing so nearly impossible. Trudeau said northern leaders have asked for vaccines that are easier to handle.

Moderna's vaccine candidate, which is expected to be second in line for approval, only needs to be stored in regular freezers that can keep temperatures below at least -20 C.

Canada is set to receive four million doses of the Pfizer vaccine by March and 20 million in 2021. Canada has an option in the contract to buy up to 56 million more.

But Trudeau said Monday everything is now happening faster.

"Canada has secured an agreement with Pfizer to begin early delivery of doses of their vaccine candidate," Trudeau said.

The Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine needs two doses, so 249,000 doses would be enough to vaccinate nearly 125,000 people.

Health Canada is also reviewing three other vaccine candidates, including the one from Moderna, which is set to deliver two million doses to Canada in the first quarter of 2021.

In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island entered what it's calling a two-week "circuit-breaker" lockdown after seven new cases of the virus were reported over the weekend.

The province reported four new cases on Monday, all of whom are close contacts with those announced on the weekend.

All Islanders in their 20s are being asked to be tested for COVID-19 even if they have no symptoms.

Visitors are being kept out of hospital and long-term care homes, except under compassionate circumstances.

Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 1,925 new virus cases today, beating the record set a day earlier by one.

Premier Doug Ford is expected to speak about his province's vaccine plans this afternoon.

Quebec reported 1,577 new cases of COVID-19 and 22 additional deaths linked to the virus, three of which took place in the last 24 hours.