Canada could approve Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine within the next week

OTTAWA: Canadian health authorities could approve Pfizer Inc's coronavirus vaccine within the next week, allowing distribution to start in early 2021, medical officials indicated on Thursday.

Although Canada has signed supply deals with seven manufacturers, officials say the first decision is set to be on the vaccine Pfizer developed with German partner BioNTech SE .

"Things have been progressing really well, and we're expecting within the next week to 10 days to be making a final decision," Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser to the top official at the federal health ministry, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Canada's deputy chief public health officer, Howard Njoo, later told reporters that "certainly we expect it to be a favorable one".

A second wave is sweeping Canada, setting daily records for the number of new cases. So far, Canada has reported a total of 389,778 cases of COVID-19 and 12,325 deaths.

Njoo said authorities were planning for a total of six million doses of vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna Inc to be administered in the first quarter of 2021. This is enough for three million of Canada's 38 million population.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told members of his ruling Liberal Party on Tuesday that priority would be given to first responders, workers in long-term care homes, the elderly and members of remote aboriginal communities.

The premier of the western province of Alberta said on Wednesday that Ottawa had told him to expect deliveries starting on Jan. 4.

Canada has asked the military to help distribute the vaccines across what is the second largest country in the world by area, much of it sparsely populated.

Major-General Dany Fortin, in charge of the effort, said the military would start doing dry runs on Dec 7.

Health Canada is also reviewing vaccine candidates from AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson.