Moderna will send far fewer coronavirus shots to Canada this month than originally planned as the company grapples with production issues at its facilities in Europe, Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand told CBC News.
The company was poised to send 1.2 million more doses to Canada this month, but that shipment has been cut back to just 650,000 shots. While those shots were to arrive next week, the reduced shipment is now not expected until later this month, possibly as late as the first week of May.
Moreover, while Canada was planning to receive some 12.3 million doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine by the end of June, the company has now told officials that it will be one to two million shots short of that goal. Those shots will be pushed into the July through September period.
“Moderna advised Canada that this is due to a slower than anticipated ramp up of their production capacity and is affecting a number of countries. We are disappointed, and while we understand the challenges facing suppliers in the current global market for vaccines, our government will continue to press Moderna to fulfil its commitments,” Anand said.
“When Moderna provides additional information, we will share it as soon as it is received. We continue to press Moderna for consistency of supply to Canada.”
The 855,000 doses of the Moderna product that were supposed to arrive the week of April 5 have only started to show up over the last several days, hampering the planned immunization clinics in some provinces.
More to come.
