When will Canada’s general vaccination for COVID-19 begin? The federal and provincial rollout plans so far

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Less than a year after COVID-19 first reached its shores, Canada began vaccinating people against the virus that causes it. The federal government, provinces and First Nations have a difficult task ahead – a general vaccination that Ottawa hopes to begin by April and finish by the end of the year – but it’s already hitting a snag as a production slowdown at Pfizer-BioNTech’s Belgian plant brought Canada’s shipments to a near-standstill in late January and early February.

Here’s a primer on the rollout plans so far. You can also consult our main COVID-19 data page for the latest numbers of vaccine doses administered, nationwide and by province.

Which vaccines are Canadians getting?

So far, Health Canada has approved two vaccines, one developed by Pfizer Inc. and German-based BioNTech, the other by Moderna. The vaccines were up to 95-per-cent effective in late-stage clinical trials, but only if patients are given two doses 21 days apart. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has to be stored between -60 and -80 C, so the provinces have been scrambling to get enough ultracold storage space. Moderna says its drug is stable at -20 C (a standard freezer temperature) for up to six months, and at two to eight degrees (a standard refrigerator temperature) for 30 days.

Ottawa has pre-purchased five other vaccine candidates, some of which are in a “rolling submission” process that allows Health Canada to evaluate them before all the data is gathered:

• AstraZeneca/Oxford
• Janssen/Johnson & Johnson
• Medicago/GlaxoSmithKline
• Novavax
• Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline

The federal rollout

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The Trudeau government has bought tens of millions of doses of various vaccines and is co-ordinating with provinces, territories and First Nations to deliver them to Canadians free of charge. The vaccines go through a central agency, the National Operations Centre, where health officials and the military organize their distribution. The high-level guidelines about who should be vaccinated first come from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which says the initial doses should go to:

• seniors’ home staff and residents
• adults 70 or older, starting with the oldest, then going down in five-year increments
• health care workers
• adults in Indigenous communities

Ottawa’s initial timetable calls for 125,000 people to be vaccinated by the end of the year, with general inoculation starting in April and all Canadians vaccinated by December, 2021. That plan isn’t set in stone, as much will depend on global supply chains: There’ll be less vaccine to go around in January and February due to a Pfizer-BioNTech supply shortage, but once their Belgian plant is upgraded, the drug makers say it should make up the quota for March as planned.

The provincial rollouts

Once the National Operations Centre has the doses, they go to distribution depots set up by the provinces and territories. Each of these, as well as the military and the federal agency in charge of prisons, will follow one of three models for distribution.

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Newfoundland and Labrador

• Official page: Check Newfoundland and Labrador’s coronavirus information page here.
• The plan so far: Due to the need for ultra-cold storage, Newfoundland and Labrador’s initial doses can only be delivered in St. John’s. Health-care workers began vaccinations on Dec. 16; the other initial priority groups include seniors in long-term care and Indigenous communities.

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Prince Edward Island

• Official page: Check PEI’s coronavirus information page and its guide to the vaccine rollout specifically.
• The plan so far: Health officials began their first vaccinations at Charlottetown’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Dec. 16. Phase 1 of the rollout, from December to March, focuses on long-term care residents and staff, front-line health workers, people over 80 and adults in First Nations communities.

Nova Scotia

• Official page: Check Nova Scotia’s coronavirus information page here.
• The plan so far: Nova Scotia’s initial pilot project is focused on the Central Zone, the Halifax area, where doses began going to health care workers in COVID-19 and intensive-care on Dec. 16. The vaccines are being stored at a teaching complex at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre.

New Brunswick

• Official page: Check New Brunswick’s coronavirus information page here.
• The plan so far: The initial storage area for vaccines is at Miramichi Regional Hospital, where vaccinations began on Dec. 19. The first priority groups include COVID-19 rapid response teams, ambulance workers, seniors 85 and older and First Nations nurses.

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Quebec

• Official page: Check Quebec’s coronavirus information page and its guide to the vaccine rollout specifically.
• The plan so far: Quebec was the first province to put long-term care home residents at the front of the line. After long-term care will come residents of private seniors’ residences and isolated communities, as well as Quebeckers aged 80 and over.

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Ontario

• Official page: Check Ontario’s coronavirus information page and its guide to the vaccine rollout specifically.
• The plan so far: Vaccination clinics were set up at 19 different hospital sites across Ontario, though some of these have been triaging doses in anticipation of the Pfizer-BioNTech shortage. About 2,500 health workers are due for shots in the first stage of the rollout.

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Manitoba

• Official page: Check Manitoba’s coronavirus information page and its initial news release on the rollout.
• The plan so far: The first doses went to some 900 health care workers in critical-care units, with other groups of health-care workers next on the eligibility list.

Saskatchewan

• Official page: Check Saskatchewan’s coronavirus information page and its guide to the vaccine rollout specifically.
• The plan so far: Critical health care workers got vaccinated first in a pilot project at Regina General Hospital, with the next stage extending to more health care workers, long-term care staff and residents and people in remote areas.

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Alberta

• Official page: Check the Alberta government’s coronavirus information page and Alberta Health Services’ vaccination page.
• The plan so far: All long-term care residents and staff have been vaccinated, the province said in late January, but new first-dose appointments are on hold due to the Pfizer-BioNTech shortage. Alberta Health Services is still figuring out the order of priority for its second phase of vaccinations from April to September.

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B.C.

• Official page: Check B.C.’s coronavirus information page and its guide to the vaccine rollout specifically.
• The plan so far: Long-term care and health-care workers were first in line in December, and further batches will go to other seniors, Indigenous communities and prison populations in February and March.

Territories

• Official pages: Check the coronavirus information pages for Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon.
• The plan so far: All three territories have begun injecting doses of Moderna’s vaccine, which is easier to transport and store in the North than Pfizer-BioNTech’s. Elders, front-line health workers and people in remote communities at risk of outbreaks are the first to get it. The territorial governments aim to vaccinate 75 per cent or more of their populations by March of 2021.

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Compiled by Globe staff

With reports from The Canadian Press, Ivan Semeniuk and Kelly Grant

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