MONTREAL – A temporary production collapse by Pfizer is set to hit Quebec hard, along with the rest of the country, with nearly half of the region’s projected doses between now and February 8 not reaching the record- ama.
A day after he laid out a more robust plan and schedule for the region’s vaccination campaign, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced Friday night that nearly 87,000 doses expected to be delivered in the three next few weeks.
“Our teams are already working on setting up a new dose circulation schedule,” Dubé wrote on Twitter at 6pm on Friday. “Details to come.”
The temporary supply cut comes after Pfizer decided to redesign their production facility in Europe to be able to produce more of the vaccine. The decision was only announced today.
It was already known that the situation would reduce Canada’s total supply by about 50 percent in the next three weeks. However, it was not stated whether this would affect all areas.
The differences are net and are not evenly distributed over the three weeks – loads fall sharply in the middle of that period. In the second week, from January 25 to February 1, Quebec expected to receive nearly 47,000 doses but instead will receive only 8,775 for the entire week.
For comparison, Quebec alone today produced 11,400 views.
Yesterday, Quebec announced its plans to delay the second dose or increase Quebecers of the vaccine for up to 90 days in an effort to give people the first dose.
But that plan was made with the delivery of far greater doses to work with.
“This decline in reach means a revision of the goals presented in the past few days,” Quebec’s health ministry wrote in an update on its website.
“[Ministry] teams are actively working to establish a new dose circulation plan accordingly, in line with established vaccine priorities. “
The ministry has not yet responded to a question from CTV as to whether this could involve changing the maximum 90-day delay before everyone gets their bullet raised.
QUEBEC GAINED MOMENTUM QUICKLY
In the past two weeks, Quebec has dramatically increased its vaccine capacity.
It is currently at the second highest level among Canadian provinces in terms of the amount of government-available provision in people’s arms (78.35 percent of available doses) , and also how many people were vaccinated per person (almost 1.5 people have been vaccinated for every 100 people). Only Alberta is higher.
However, the province has yet to partially vaccinate its first-priority groups.
“In Quebec, 127,073 doses of vaccine have been given so far, including 27,654 to CHSLD residents, representing nearly 65% of those who received a place,” the ministry wrote in its update.
“As for the nursing staff, 94,318 people received the vaccine, out of 325,000,” which adds up to 29 percent.
The 5,000 or so doses were given to “family carers and people living in remote or isolated communities,” the province said.
The statement said that “the timing of vaccinations is constantly evolving with confirmation of the arrival of vaccines, in a way that is consistent with respecting the established priority groups. “
They said the province can make forecasts until the end of March with its delivery information.