Moderna vaccine

Health Canada is not yet ready to make a decision about approving the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca, more than two weeks after it signalled the ruling could be imminent.

The vast majority of Canadians blame Ottawa rather than provincial governments for delays in COVID-19 vaccine delivery, a new poll suggests.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling for a quicker, clearer vaccination plan that would see Canada's military deployed across the country to speed up provincial COVID-19 inoculation efforts.

As the Trudeau government is forced to explain delays rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, some of the world's economic and health leaders are warning of catastrophic financial consequences if poorer countries are shortchanged on vaccinations.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says Ottawa plans to distribute more than 70,000 Pfizer-BiotNTech vaccine doses this week ahead of a major ramp-up, but no Moderna doses are on the schedule.

The prime minister on Friday, February 5, 2021, sought to quell angst over delays in vaccine delivery while British Columbia extended restrictions on gatherings to stem the spread of new, more transmissible variants of the COVID-19 virus.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand said this week she is confident Canada's COVID-19 vaccine deliveries will only get better going forward but just hours after she made the remark, Canada's vaccine purchases got slammed again.

Canada is putting together options to retaliate if Europe breaks its promise not to cut off Canada's shipments of COVID-19 vaccines, though Europe appears to be keeping that promise at least for now.

A top science adviser says Ontario is far from in the clear despite a downward trend in COVID-19 cases, while some provinces criticized Ottawa for lower-than-expected vaccine shipments and the pandemic was flagged as an outsized contributor to Quebec's death count last year.

Canada's vaccine deliveries are getting bigger almost every week but there won't be enough doses shipped to provinces and territories to "ramp up" the vaccination program for another few months, Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin outlined on Thursday, January 14, 2021.

Vaccine distribution has begun on a handful of Manitoba reserves as a task force reports that 61 per cent of the people with active COVID-19 in the province are First Nations.

Canada has approved two vaccines and is currently scheduled to receive four million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and another two million from Moderna before the end of March. That is the same delivery plan that has existed since November.

Canada's hardest-hit regions are further tightening COVID-19 lockdown measures with public health officials blaming holiday gatherings for surging infections and experts suggesting Quebec's clampdown may inspire more restrictions.

Canada is the latest country to investigate how to stretch vaccine doses as far as possible, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have tragic consequences all around the world.

Experts who advocate for improvements to long-term care in Canada say the provinces need to move faster to vaccinate residents and the people who look after them.