OTTAWA: Canadian authorities are scrambling to regain lost ground in their intention to vaccinate vulnerable people against Covid-19, following an initial release that many public health officials criticize as slow and disorganized.
Although Canada quickly requested vaccines and approved the use of the shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE in early December — two days before the U.S. authorized it — the nation has lagged behind several of its peers in developed countries in administering vaccines.
Just over 0.5% of the northern U.S. neighbor’s population was vaccinated as of Wednesday. By comparison, the United States had vaccinated 1.6% of its population by that date and Israel had inoculated more than 18%, according to Our World in Data, a nonprofit research project at Oxford University. . The United Kingdom had vaccinated approximately 1.9% of its population on 3 January, the most recent date for which a number of vaccines were available.
Public health experts say Canadian officials have struggled to quickly move vaccine doses from industrial freezers where they need to be stored in long-term care centers where senior residents are among the first designated inoculation. Deployment has been complicated by a decentralized health system run by individual provinces and territories and by Ontario’s decision to stop vaccinations in the country’s most populous province for two days during the holidays.
The head of the provincial government’s vaccine working group, retired General Rick Hillier, later said the pause was a wrong decision, taken in the hope that long-term care homes would have fewer staff available to receive doses. of vaccine during the holidays.