COVID-19 crisis entering ‘final stretch,’ says Trudeau

OTTAWA — Millions of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive from three different suppliers before Canada Day as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked people to “stay strong, a little longer.”

“We’re entering the final stretch of this crisis,” Trudeau said at a news conference on Tuesday in Ottawa.

Trudeau said Pfizer and BioNTech will send another five million doses of their vaccine to Canada in June, bringing total shipments from the company in the spring to 17.8 million. Pfizer is expected to ship more than one million doses a week in April and May, and more than two million every week in June.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Canada now expects 4.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by June 30, and the first shipments of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine are set to arrive at the end of April. She doesn’t know yet how many doses will be in that first shipment.

Even without J&J, and barring any unexpected interruptions in production or export of vaccines, Canada is in line to get more than 44 million doses before Canada Day.

That should mean all adults over 18 will be offered a vaccine faster, and that the wait for a second dose may not be as long as the current four months.