Canada clears fourth vaccine to fight virus

Cana is getting a fourth vaccine to fight COVID-19 as country's health regulator has cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose inste of two, officials said Friday.

Health experts are eager for a one-and-done option to help speed vaccination.

Cana has also approved vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca and Health Cana is first major regulator to approve four different vaccines, said Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Cana’s chief medical viser.

Like many countries, Cana does not have domestic production and has struggled with an immediate shortage of vaccines. U.S. so far isn’t allowing locally me vaccines to be exported, so Cana - like or U.S. neighbour, Mexico - has been forced to get vaccines from Europe and Asia.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Cana has an agreement with Johnson & Johnson for 10 million doses between now and September. It was not immediately clear when Cana would get its first shipment.

But Trudeau announced Pfizer will be delivering an ditional 1.5 million doses to Cana in March and anor 1 million doses ahe of schedule in both April and May.

J&J also is seeking authorization for emergency use of its vaccine in Europe and from World Health Organization. company aims to produce about 1 billion doses globally by end of year.

vaccine shortage is so acute in Cana that provincial governments are now saying y will extend interval between two doses of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines to four months rar than three to four weeks so y can quickly inoculate more people.

Canians 80 and above in general public are only starting to get vaccinated this month and National visory Committee on Immunization said this week that extending dose interval to four months would allow as many as 80% of Canians over age of 16 to receive a single dose by end of June simply with expected supply of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

Second doses would begin to be ministered in July as more shipments arrive, panel said.

Cana also faces prospect of vaccine delivery disruptions from European Union. A shipment of over a quarter-million AstraZeneca vaccines destined for Australia has been blocked from leaving European Union in first use of an export control system instituted by bloc to make sure big pharma companies respect ir local contracts.