Ottawa: Majority of Canadians will receive Corona vaccines by the end of the next year, with first vaccinations being planned for January-February 2021, Canadian Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Howard Njoo said on Tuesday, as quoted by the Toronto Star newspaper.
“Certainly what we’re looking at is hopefully covering the vast majority of the Canadian population by the end of next year,” Njoo said.
The health official added that the first phase of the vaccination would not cover a large number of Canadians, but would be carried out gradually.
According to the Canadian media outlet, the first Canadians to receive the vaccines will be those from high-risk groups, namely the elderly, health care workers and the indigenous people, who live in crowded settlements.
The Canadian government has already signed contracts with a slew of vaccine-makers including AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novavax, Pfizer and Sanofi to provide the Canadian population with their COVID-19 vaccines.
According to the data published on the site of Canada’s government, the country has recorded 306,468 COVID-19 cases, with 11,086 deaths.
In the past 24 hours, Canada reported 4,276 new cases. (UNI)