Canada will bid farewell to 13.6 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine as it has been unable to find buyers at home or abroad, the Canadian health regulator announced on Tuesday.
the american country signed with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in 2020 to receive 20 million doseswith 2.3 million Canadians receiving at least one dose of the product, primarily between March and June 2021.
Following questions raised in the spring of 2021 about the risk of rare but potentially fatal blood clots from this immunizer, Ottawa opted to use its supply of mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
High death rate from rare blood clot events after AstraZeneca vaccine
In July 2021, Canada committed to donating AstraZeneca’s remaining vaccines: about 17.7 million doses. Nevertheless, 13.6 million doses have passed their expiration date and will have to be thrown awaythe government agency Health Canada said in a statement.
“Due to the limited demand for the vaccine and the challenges of the recipient country with its distribution and absorption, they were not accepted,” the note reads.
Canada donated a total of 8.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine: 4.8 million were part of the main supply and 4.1 million were purchased through the COVAX vaccine exchange mechanism.
About 85% of Canadians are considered to be fully vaccinated, compared to 61% of the world’s population and only 16% of people living in the world’s poorest regions.
Source: Observadora
