The provinces supply of Pfizer has been reduced in the first two weeks of July and has not been confirmed for the rest of the next month. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only COVID-19 shot currently approved by Health Canada for people age 12 to 17, leaving youth who recently became eligible for their second shot with few options to book an appointment. (John Woods / Canadian Press files)
Appointments for a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine continue to be in short supply as the province awaits confirmation on future deliveries from the federal government.
The province’s supply of Pfizer has been reduced in the first two weeks of July and has not been confirmed for the rest of the next month, leaving youth age 12 to 17 who recently became eligible for their second shot with few options to book an appointment.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only COVID-19 shot currently approved by Health Canada for people age 12 to 17.
Without confirmed deliveries of Pfizer through mid to late July, the provincial government will not add Pfizer appointments to its booking system.
The vaccine task force has said once deliveries are confirmed, appointments will become available. There are currently about 6,000 Pfizer doses with medical clinics and pharmacists in Manitoba, which have been allocated to patients, the province said.
The task force said it is confirmed to receive 87,750 Pfizer doses this week and next. For the week of July 5, just 32,760 doses are confirmed to arrive in Manitoba, down from 83,000.
However, the majority of those doses were already booked by eligible Manitobans weeks ago.
The federal government says during the week of July 12, another 52,000 doses will arrive, also down from 83,000.
With the supply disruption reducing deliveries during the first week of July by more than 50,000 Pfizer shots, it’s expected that people who were booked in for Pfizer will be offered Moderna instead.
In a statement to the Free Press, the office of federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the total number of Pfizer doses set to arrive in Canada in July has not changed because of the supply disruption.
Deliveries of Pfizer in the last two weeks of July will be higher to make up for the reductions earlier in the month, the minister’s office said.
As a result, Johanu Botha, co-lead of the Manitoba COVID-19 vaccine task force, said last week that people aged 12 to 17 will likely wait longer to book an appointment for their second shot, which would have been in the final two weeks of July, but will still be immunized within the same time period.
danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
Danielle Da SilvaReporter
Danielle Da Silva is a general assignment reporter.
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