Pfizer COVID vaccine doses will continue to flood Canada in August: Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says large shipments of COVID-19 vaccines will continue to pour into Canada through the summer, with more than two million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab expected to arrive each week until the end of August.

Trudeau says that accounts for nine million Pfizer doses in July and another 9.1 million expected in August. He adds that Canada has also negotiated an option for three million more Pfizer doses to be delivered in September.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand says more than 50 million doses from Pfizer will have been delivered by the end of September.

Sixty-five per cent of eligible Canadians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine since the country's rollout began in December.

Trudeau says that's "encouraging" news, adding that Canadians have "reason to be hopeful about this summer and fall."

Public health officials say COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to trend downward in parts of the country while vaccinations ramp up.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief medical officer of health, says the latest seven-day average for daily cases in the country is 2,300, down 73 per cent from the peak of the third wave.

Hospitalizations are down 47 per cent, ICU admissions are down 31 per cent and deaths down are down 35 per cent, Tam adds.

Twenty-five million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across Canada, with 2.8 million Canadians getting a dose in the past week alone.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2021.