Canada expects to have enough doses by the end of July to fully vaccinate everyone eligible

Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand announced today that Canada will have enough product on hand by the end of July to fully vaccinate every person eligible for a shot.

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Canada’s immunization campaign is already in full swing, with hundreds of thousands of doses being administered each day. Those shots will continue to be doled out at a steady rate for the foreseeable future — and Canada will have received 69 million doses by the end of the next six weeks.

With roughly 32 million people over the age of 12 eligible for a vaccine, the country needs 64 million shots to administer the necessary two doses — a threshold the country is likely to surpass in mid-July. Health Canada has not yet authorized any vaccine for children under the age of 12.

That commitment of 69 million doses by the end of July is millions more than the 55 million shots the federal government promised just last week.

The boosted projection is thanks in large part to Moderna offering a firmer commitment on deliveries in the last two weeks of this month and into July.

Canada is to receive 15 million doses from Moderna this month alone; 4.3 million of those shots already have been delivered, a figure that includes the gift of one million doses from the U.S. yesterday.

Two more shipments of 2.8 million doses each (for a total of 5.6 million doses) are to arrive before Canada Day.

Anand announced today another five million Moderna doses will be shipped between now and month’s end, although the logistics have not yet been confirmed.

Moderna is expected to deliver 6.6 million more doses in July.

While the Moderna supply is ramping up dramatically after months of uncertainty and slashed deliveries, Pfizer has made some adjustments to its shipping schedule for July.

Pfizer is still planning to meet its commitment to send nine million doses to Canada next month, but the government says it now expects “a lower allocation in early July and a larger allocation later in July to offset.”

More than 4.8 million Pfizer doses have been delivered this month already.

The New York-based company sent another 2.4 million doses to Canada this week and shipments of similar sizes are expected each week for the rest of the month. In July, Pfizer is expected to send 9.1 million more shots.

When you add up what has been delivered already with the firm forecasts for deliveries over the next six weeks, 69 million shots are expected in the first seven months of this year.

The federal government originally expected to have enough product on hand to fully vaccinate all Canadians by the end of September, meaning the country is on track to finish the two-dose regimen roughly two months earlier than planned.

CBC