Canada to receive fewer Pfizer vaccine doses than expected in Q1 - media report

Health authorities in several major provinces say some hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed by a second wave of the virus.

Canada will receive only 3.5 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter of 2021, not the 4 million the country had expected, a reporter from Global News tweeted on Thursday, citing two unnamed provincial sources.

Although Pfizer had already cut shipments to Canada after slowing European production earlier in January, Ottawa has said repeatedly that it expected the U.S. pharmaceutical giant to catch up by the end of March. The federal procurement ministry and Pfizer could not immediately be reached for comment. Canada is also due to receive two million does of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March and says the entire country should be inoculated some time in September.

Canada has recorded a total of 19,533 deaths and 761,226 infections so far. Health authorities in several major provinces say some hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed by a second wave of the virus.