Canada becomes second country to approve Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine
Canada has become the second country in the world, following the UK, to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for distribution of shots to be delivered and administered across the country.
Canada will start receiving its first doses of Pfizer’s vaccine before the end of December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.
In a statement, Canada’s health regulator Health Canada said: “Thanks to advances in science and technology, and an unprecedented level of global cooperation, today, Canada reached a critical milestone in its fight against COVID-19 with the authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccine.
“Health Canada received Pfizer’s submission on October 9, 2020 and after a thorough, independent review of the evidence, Health Canada has determined that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine meets the department’s stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada.”
The UK was the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which in a large clinical trial was 95% effective at preventing illness.
Canada has a firm order for 20 million doses of the vaccine, enough to inoculate 10 million people, with options to buy up to 56 million more.
The UK, meanwhile, has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine – enough for 20 million people, with two shots each.
People in the UK started being vaccinated yesterday, with Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother, becoming the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine outside of a trial in Britain.