Health Canada Has Approved Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine
Health Canada announced on December 9 that it has officially authorized a first COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed across Canada. With Health Canada's green light, Quebec's distribution plan could be put into action soon.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously confirmed that Canada had reserved 249,000 initial doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. But it was waiting for Health Canada's approval to move forward.
On Monday, Health Minister Chrisitan Dubé said the province was ready to receive and distribute several thousand doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Quebec, and that the province would be getting an initial batch of 4,000 doses.
Editor's Choice: Police Responded To An Illegal Gathering Of Nearly 200 People In Montreal's Mile End
“
We see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Premier François Legault
Quebec then aims to vaccinate between 22,000 and 28,000 people by January 4. By the end of March 2021, the health ministry hopes that 650,000 Quebecers will get the COVID-19 vaccine, he said.
Quebec plans to distribute vaccines starting with priority groups, including elderly people and front-line health care workers.
Health Canada said in a statement that the vaccine has undergone a "thorough, independent review of the evidence" and that the vaccine "meets the Department's stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada."
The approval comes just one day after 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in England — and on Earth — to officially receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
More information about the vaccine can be found on the Government of Canada website.