Toronto's new COVID-19 vaccine clinic may be impacted by Pfizer shortage

Jan 17 2021, 10:36 pm

The City of Toronto’s new COVID-19 immunization clinic may be impacted by the delay in Pfizer’s vaccine shipments.

In a release, the city said those who visit the clinic to be immunized will receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

However, due to Pfizer’s temporary shipment reduction, the vaccines allotted to the city’s clinic may be moved elsewhere in Ontario.

“Due to the supply issues with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the Moderna vaccine may be reallocated by the province elsewhere, as required in the coming weeks,” the city said.

“Scheduling at the City’s proof-of-concept clinic beyond Week 1, therefore, may be impacted due to vaccine supply.”

The COVID-19 immunization clinic – the first of its kind in the city – is set to open at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on January 18. It is not open to the general public, though, and will only be used to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers.

The clinic will help officials test the immunization concept outside of a hospital to ensure future clinics are “safe and efficient” when wide-scale vaccinations begin later this year.

The city said its goal is to vaccinate 250 people per day at the new clinic. However, the release notes that the immunization schedule will be reliant on the supply of vaccines.

“As vaccine becomes more readily available, the clinic is scalable and will accelerate immunization accordingly,” the city said.

On January 15, federal health officials announced that Pfizer would be temporarily reducing its COVID-19 vaccine shipments to several countries, including Canada, as it expands its European manufacturing facility.

Canada will be impacted by the delay for four weeks.

To date, Toronto has seen 76,467 COVID-19 cases and 2,204 virus-related deaths.

Zoe DemarcoZoe Demarco

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