Arrival next week of 655,000Â doses of AstraZeneca

These hundreds of thousands of doses come from the COVAX stockpile, the initiative to provide global access to COVID-19 vaccines, Anita Anand, Minister of Supply, told Minister of Supply on Wednesday.

The mail "should be distributed next week," said his press Secretary Cecely Roy.

The vaccine is causing headaches to Canadian health authorities these days due to the risks associated with the development of vaccine-induced thrombocytopenia thrombocytopenia (VIPT). The increased risk caused Ontario to stop using the vaccine for the first doses on Tuesday.

Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador all imposed various limits on its use on Wednesday, including age, citing similar concerns about the safety of the product.

In Quebec, vaccine supplies are almost dry, following a vaccination campaign that sparked the enthusiasm of Generation X, whose turn to be vaccinated when the doses of this vaccine developed by Oxford University arrived en masse.

"currently, we estimate the number of doses AstraZeneca to be less than 1000 doses in the network. For information, of the 411,200 doses received in Quebec as of Monday morning, 410,000 doses had already been administered, "wrote a spokesperson for the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux on Wednesday.

"for the remaining doses, the department has no concern that it will be able to administer them in the near future," she added, without explicitly stating whether the government still intends to use this remaining stock, albeit in small quantities, for the first doses.

« Actuellement, le vaccin AstraZeneca est toujours offert pour les personnes de 45 ans et plus », s’est-on contenté d’offrir en disant surveiller les études sur l’interchangeabilité des doses des deux types de vaccin, ceux à base d’ARN messager (Pfizer et Moderna) et ceux à adénovirus (AstraZeneca et Johnson & Johnson).

What is the second dose for vaccinees?

Clinical trials of vaccine mixtures are underway in the United Kingdom. The results are expected in a week or two and will be scrutinized by Health Canada and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).

British scientific studies point to a significantly lower risk of IPIVD following administration of the second dose. It revolves around 1 in 1 million, whereas for the first one, we're talking about 1 in 100,000, about.