Vaccine rollout continues across Canada

Four health-care workers have become the first people inoculated against COVID-19 in their respective provinces, continuing this week's rollout of the vaccine across Canada.

Nurses were first in line for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, while Prince Edward Island administered the vaccine first to a worker at a long-term care home and Manitoba bestowed the honour on an ICU doctor.

"We are extremely lucky that we live in Canada, in Manitoba, and that people made huge efforts to get us this vaccine," said Dr. Brian Penner after receiving the first shot at the University of Manitoba’s Bannatyne campus.

Registered nurse Danielle Sheaves was first in line for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot at Dalhousie University in Halifax, while public health nurse Ellen Foley-Vick received the earliest vaccine in St. John's, N.L.

In Prince Edward Island, a resident care worker and a nurse at the Garden Home -- a long-term care facility -- got the first doses, along with a doctor who works at multiple nursing homes.

Front-line health-care workers and staff and residents of long-term care homes are up first for vaccinations across much of the country.

Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia began giving shots Tuesday, after the first ones in Canada were given in Ontario and Quebec on Monday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also said Canada is to get up to 168,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine by the end of December, ahead of schedule.

It has not yet been approved by Health Canada, but Trudeau says deliveries could begin within 48 hours of getting the green light.

These doses are part of the 40 million we’ve secured from Moderna, and deliveries could begin within 48 hours of regulatory approval. Because it’s easier to ship over long distances, doses of this vaccine will be directed to the North, and to remote and Indigenous communities.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 15, 2020

The vaccines are being administered as the number of COVID-19 cases in Canada nears 500,000.

As of Tuesday night, more than 475,000 Canadians had been diagnosed with the virus. Upwards of 13,650 have died.

On Wednesday morning, Ontario recorded another 2,139 cases of the virus, along with 43 deaths. It marked the second straight day of 2,000-plus cases for the province.

Quebec also logged 43 new deaths, and 1,897 new diagnoses.