Ottawa: Canada has received the first batch of the coronavirus vaccine from Moderna just one day after the government’s approval, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
On Wednesday, the national agency Health Canada authorised the use of the Moderna vaccine against the COVID-19 virus in the country’s immunisation campaign.
“The first doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Canada. These are part of the 168,000 doses we will be getting before the end of the month, and part of the 40 million doses we are guaranteed from Moderna overall,” Trudeau tweeted late on Thursday.
According to Public Services Minister Anita Anand, these vaccine batches would be the first to be deployed to the country’s north.
Apart from the Moderna vaccine, Canada has secured up to 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus, expecting 1.2 million doses from both manufactures to be delivered to the country by the end of next month.
The government expects to vaccinate up to three million of its citizens in early 2021.