Trudeau says pace of vaccination in Canada ‘accelerating significantly’, J&J shots could be delayed

The Prime Minister spoke about yet another increase in vaccines set to arrive in the country as a new survey shows a slim majority of Canadians don’t trust the government to hit its protection goal.

Vaccine deliveries are ramping up and in the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen two new shots approved for use in Canada but people aren’t convinced the vaccine target will be hit.

A new Ipsos poll for global shows 52 percent of people don’t think Canada will meet it, while 48 percent believe it will.

This coming with Justin Trudeau saying Tuesday the pace of vaccination in Canada is “accelerating significantly.” Trudeau told an Ottawa news conference the government is working tirelessly every day to acquire and distribute more doses.

“Last week we received almost a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and this week, we’re getting another million,” said the Prime Minister. “Before the end of this month, we will receive up to eight million doses.”

Trudeau says half-a-million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered last week and are being distributed to provinces.

Ontario is tentatively set to receive around 194,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s treatment this month.

Canada hit struggles in the early months of 2021 with vaccine delivery disruptions from Pfizer and modern, but those seem to be in the rearview mirror.

 

Trouble with J&J?

Trudeau says Canada has been warned of manufacturing problems plaguing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The viral vector vaccine developed by J&J’s subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, was authorized by Health Canada as safe and effective last week.

“We have heard in many conversations with Johnson & Johnson that there are challenges around production of the Janssen vaccine,” said Trudeau.

Canada pre-ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, which is the first and only one in Canada’s vaccine plan that requires only one dose.

But Trudeau says Canada still doesn’t have a date for when it should receive the first deliveries.

He says several conversations with the company indicate they are facing some production delays.

The revelation follows reports in several European countries that they expect smaller deliveries of the J&J vaccine in April, and announcements by the company that deliveries to the United States this month will be smaller than hoped.

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With files from The Canadian Press