"The 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses from the United States… I can now confirm, will arrive in Canada this coming Tuesday by truck", Anand told reporters.
The United States, which currently sits on 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has agreed to loan the 7 million vaccine doses to Canada, Mexico and other nations while the country’s health regulators work to assess its safety and efficacy.
Anand said Canada will receive 6 million coronavirus vaccine doses in the next three weeks and touted Canadian government’s efforts to procure vaccines from a variety of suppliers, including the United States, India and the COVAX facility. Ottawa, however, has been criticized for being the only G7 country to draw from the facility that is intended to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines to developing nations.
Despite inking deals with numerous vaccine manufacturers, the Trudeau government has faced sharp criticism for a muted vaccine rollout programme that has been labeled a failure by opposition parties as well as the majority of Canadians, according to the latest polls.