(Ottawa) Canada will receive in the coming days more than 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX initiative, Major General Danny Fortin, in charge of vaccine distribution in the country, announced at a press conference Thursday.
Fortin added that the distribution of these vaccines to the provinces and territories will start next week.
The Trudeau government has come under fire in recent weeks for deciding to indulge in this initiative that should give access to vaccines to the poorest countries.
Canada has contributed $ 440 million to this initiative and it was planned from the start that half of this amount would provide doses of vaccines to its residents. However, it is the first country in the G7 to benefit from it.
Canada is expected to receive 1.9 million doses of COVAX AstraZeneca by June.
The doses will come at a time when the country was able to get more vaccines than expected in the first quarter. Fortin confirmed that by the end of the week, Canada will have received 9.5 million doses of the vaccine from three suppliers across the country, well over the 6 million doses originally planned.
By the end of the second quarter, Canada will have received 44 million doses of the vaccine.