Feds have no single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to give to provinces
CBC
The federal government has no supply of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot Janssen COVID-19 vaccine to share with the provinces, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said today.
Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia have requested tens of thousands of doses of the vaccine as a way of increasing vaccine uptake. Health Canada has approved the viral vector vaccine but says it is not as effective as its mRNA vaccine equivalents from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
In a news release earlier this week, Premier Jason Kenney said some Albertans in areas of low vaccine uptake have expressed a preference for the Janssen vaccine. The Alberta government has requested 20,000 doses from the federal government.
Hajdu told a news conference today the federal government would be happy to fulfil the request but doesn't have the doses to provide.
"Currently we don't have usable doses on hand, and so we're looking for additional doses so that we can get them very quickly to the provinces and territories," she said.
In a statement to CBC News, federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand's office confirmed that Ottawa has no supply of the single-shot vaccine.
"We do not have Janssen vaccine doses in Canada and we are working to support the people of Alberta," the statement reads.