Canada - As virus variants rise, Canada looks to boost vaccine rates

Global News shows that Canada is seeing a race between getting COVID-19 vaccines delivered and trying to combat the rise in virus variants, with Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam warning measures need to be stronger and sustained longer to control the variants.

As part of a ramp-up in the vaccine rollout, 1.2 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are certainly arriving in the country Sunday.

But health officials, including nurses, are warning that with the spread of variants, even those vaccinated cannot let their guard down. Travis Dhanraj certainly reports.

Many countries have implemented phased distribution plans that prioritize those at highest risk of complications, such as the elderly, and those at high risk of exposure and transmission, such as healthcare workers. As of 27 March 2021, 541.05 million doses of COVID‑19 vaccine have been administered worldwide based on official reports from national health agencies. AstraZeneca-Oxford anticipates producing 3 billion doses in 2021, Pfizer-BioNTech 1.3 billion doses, and Sputnik V, Sinopharm, Sinovac, and Johnson & Johnson 1 billion doses each. Moderna targets producing 600 million doses and Convidecia 500 million doses in 2021. By December 2020, more than 10 billion vaccine doses had been preordered by countries, with approximately half of the doses purchased by high-income countries comprising 14% of the world's large population.