Canada jumps ahead of US and approves Pfizer Covid vaccine - with innoculations starting next week

Health Canada has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use in the country, with the initial doses expected next week.

The federal health agency announced on Wednesday that it had approved the vaccine as safe to use, and said that the team in charge of rolling-out the treatment can start administering it to Canadian residents, according to CTV News.

“Health Canada has determined that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine meets the Department's stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

The vaccine already has been approved by the UK and Bahrain, and officials have said they expect US approval within days.

In an interview with CTV, Pfizer Canada’s Vaccines medical lead Dr Jelena Vojicic said she is “very pleased” with the decision to approve the vaccine.

“This is certainly a historic moment for science, and for Canadians. And this is a result of a tremendous effort, starting with the international scientific community, and then going over the dedicated work of Pfizer and BioNTech employees, the clinical trial sites, the participants in the clinical trials, the volunteers,” Dr Vojicic said.

Canada is set to receive up to 249,000 doses in December and officials expect to administer them within days. That will mean about 124,500 of the highest risk Canadians will get vaccinated at first, as two doses are required per person a few weeks apart.

The Canadian government has said that initially 14 distribution centres will be located in large cities. There will be at least one in each province and two each in Canada’s four largest provinces.

Pfizer and BioNTech said it will supply a minimum of 20 million doses to Canada through 2021 and could provide as many as 76 million.

Canada also has contracts with six other vaccine makers.

The UK began vaccinations on Tuesday, and on the same day, US regulators released their first scientific evaluation of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine and confirmed it offers strong protection even after just the first dose.

US Food and Drug Administration scientists are meeting on Thursday, when the agency’s independent advisers will debate if the evidence is strong enough to recommend vaccinating millions of Americans.

FDA scientists reanalysed data and found the Pfizer vaccine appears safe and more than 90 per cent effective across patients of different ages, races and underlying health conditions.

Vaccines are emerging from an all-out worldwide race and are reaching the market less than a year after the virus was even identified — a remarkable scientific achievement that shaved years off the usual process.

With reporting from the Associated Press