Canada approves Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, says other shots arriving faster than planned
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s drug regulator has approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, the fourth such shot to be given the green light, Ottawa said on Friday, amid frustration over the slow pace of inoculations.
“The last year hasn’t been easy, but we are going to get through this … to people watching at home right now who are looking forward to getting their shot – your turn is coming,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a briefing.
Canada is the second major jurisdiction to approve the shot after the United States.
Trudeau also said Pfizer Inc had agreed to pull forward deliveries of its vaccine and would ship a total of 3.5 million doses ahead of schedule by the end of May.
Deliveries to Canada have been slow even though it ordered more doses per capita than any other country. Canada is now lagging many other developed nations’ vaccination campaigns, but Ottawa says deliveries should increase significantly in the second quarter.
The approval could ease some logistical challenges, since the J&J vaccine is administered in a single dose and can be stored in normal fridges while the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots must be kept in freezers.
The single-dose shot, which has been authorized for adults in Canada, was 66% effective at preventing moderate and severe disease, said Supriya Sharma, a senior health ministry official.
Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Inc vaccines in December, and AstraZeneca’s vaccine in February.
Canada has pre-ordered 10 million doses of the J&J vaccine, with options to order up to 28 million more. In a statement, the Brunswick, New Jersey-based company said it planned to provide the 10 million doses by the end of September.
U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier this week that Johnson & Johnson was behind in manufacturing. The company was due to have shipped 37 million doses to the United States by the end of this month but looks set to fall well short of that.
Canada has recorded a total of 22,151 COVID-19 deaths and 878,391 cases during the pandemic. Around 3,000 new infections are being reported each day, well down from the 8,400 seen in January.
So far, 4.2% of the Canadian population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to volunteer-run tracking site COVID-19 Tracker Canada. In the United States, more than 16% have received at least one dose.
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