Canada approves Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine after UK and Bahrain

Toronto/Ottawa - The country will receive an early shipment of up to 249,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine this year.

Canada on Wednesday approved its first Covid-19 vaccine, clearing the way for doses of the Pfizer Inc shots to be delivered and administered across the country as soon as next week.

Canada is the third country after Britain and Bahrain to give the green light to the Pfizer vaccine, developed with Germany's BioNTech SE.

Also read: UK: Don’t take Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine if you have serious allergies

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The vaccine was approved under an interim, accelerated drug review system very similar to the US Food and Drug Administration's emergency use authorisations, and comes a day before a panel of advisers to the FDA is set to review and recommend whether the US agency should authorize use of the Pfizer vaccine.

On Tuesday, British citizens became the first in the world to get the shots outside of clinical trials following last week's UK approval.

In a large, late-stage trial, the vaccine was shown to be 95 per cent effective at preventing illness, far better than originally anticipated.

However on Wednesday, Britain's medicine regulator advised that people with a history of significant allergies not get Pfizer's vaccine after two people reported adverse reactions on the first day of its rollout.

Responding to questions on the allergic reactions, Health Canada officials said that is always a risk with vaccines, but they are recommending that people who have previously had adverse reactions to any of the ingredients in the vaccine not to take it for now.

Officials said they would monitor developments in Britain to see if there were further implications for Canada.

Canada will receive an early shipment of up to 249,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine by the end of the month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.

Canada released a detailed plan for its vaccination rollout on Wednesday, saying that the nation is now "well-positioned to immunise 100 per cent of the population in 2021." General inoculations for all Canadians would begin in April after priority populations have been vaccinated, it said.

The province of Saskatchewan said on Wednesday it expected to receive enough doses for 1,950 people by Tuesday intended first for healthcare workers in direct contact with Covid-19 patients.

Quebec expects to have received 55,000 doses of the vaccine by Jan. 4, the premier of the predominantly French-speaking province, Francois Legault, said.

'HISTORIC MOMENT'

"Today's decision from Health Canada is a historic moment in our collective fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and is a major step towards returning to normalcy in Canada," Cole Pinnow, president of Pfizer Canada, said in a statement.

FedEx Corp and Innomar Strategies, a Canada-based unit of US drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp, have been hired to provide logistical support on vaccine delivery. the Pfizer vaccine, developed with Germany's BioNTech SE.