‘We are on track’: Trudeau reassures Canadians on vaccine

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has urged citizens not to worry about the increasing concerns on the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the country.

“When the vaccines are going to come? That’s why there’s a lot of anxiety and there’s a lot of noise going on right now. I want to reassure Canadians: we are on track,” Xinhua news agency quoted Trudeau as saying at a press conference here on Friday.

The Prime Minister said that he has spoken with Pfizer and Moderna.

“I speak almost every week with CEOs of these vaccine companies, and they have assured me that they will meet their obligations.

“I want to reassure Canadians that we’re on track,” he said, adding that as many as 20 million more doses will start to arrive in the spring as his government keeps its sight on vaccinating all people who want a shot by the end of September.

Trudeau asked Canadians to stop worrying about the country’s vaccine efforts, saying the temporary “ups and downs” may be frustrating to some people, but they’re just that temporary.

It is reported that Pfizer and Moderna are grappling with manufacturing issues at their plants in Europe that have severely disrupted deliveries to markets outside the US.

In the US, both companies are producing vaccines exclusively for the American market.

Trudeau did not however respond when asked if Canada had any legal recourse if the companies don’t meet their contractual obligations.

The Prime Minister instead said he spoke with the CEO of AstraZeneca this week, who told him vaccines would follow shortly after Health Canada’s green light.

The 20 million AstraZeneca doses reportedly will be delivered between approval and the end of September, with the delivery schedule for those doses to be confirmed after the vaccine is approved.

Health Canada reportedly has assessed AstraZeneca’s submission for safety and efficacy since last October, and the two-dose vaccine could be granted approval as early as next week.

So far, more than 1.2 million vaccine shots have already been delivered in Canada, with an estimated 1.3 million more slated to arrive this month.

Canada has so far reported a total of 796,892 Covid-19 cases and 20,594 deaths.

Over the past seven days, there have been an average of 3,947 new cases reported daily, as case counts continue to decline and many provinces reported over 15 per cent fewer infections, compared to last week, the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Friday.