By Canadian Press

B.C. extends restrictions as prime minister seeks to allay vaccine delay angst

Feb 5, 2021 | 3:20 PM

The prime minister on Friday sought to quell angst over delays in vaccine delivery while British Columbia extended restrictions on gatherings to stem the spread of new, more transmissible variants of the COVID-19 virus. 

Justin Trudeau said his government knew all along that short-term delays in vaccine shipments would be possible and planned accordingly. 

“But I hear it from all Canadians right now: people are worried. People are tired of this pandemic,” he said. “They want to know when this winter’s going to be over. They want to know when they can go back to everything they’ve done before. They want to know mostly when their grandparents are going to be safe, when the vaccines are going to come.

“That’s why there’s a lot of anxiety and a lot of noise going on right now.”

Shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, one of two approved in Canada, have slowed as a plant in Belgium is retooled to eventually churn out more doses. Canada is getting about one-fifth of previously planned shipments this week and next.

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An upcoming shipment of the Moderna vaccine is expected to be 50,000 doses shy of what had been expected due to production delays in Switzerland. 

But Trudeau said Canada is “very much on track” to receive a total of six million doses of vaccine by the end of March, as planned. 

He reiterated that all Canadians who want to receive a vaccine will be able to do so by September. 

“I speak almost every week with the CEOs of these vaccine companies and they have assured me that they will meet … their contractual obligations,” Trudeau said.

He sidestepped a question on whether vaccine manufacturers would be penalized if they failed to follow through on their commitments.

Also Friday, Trudeau said the Liberal government has approved a request for help from the Pauingassi First Nation in northern Manitoba. He said the military was to arrive by Saturday at the latest and stay until Wednesday. 

Soldiers are to provide logistical support, transport goods and medical supplies, and do wellness checks.

In Ottawa, Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, renewed her call for provincial restrictions to be eased gradually and cautiously. 

Later in the day, B.C.’s provincial health officer said a “hard push” is needed now to protect people from the new strains. B.C. recorded 10 new cases of variants first detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa. 

“We are in a place of a little bit of more uncertainty. We need to buy some time to understand if the positive things we are seeing are going to allow us to take away from the restrictions we have in place now,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said. “And we don’t yet know that.”

Alberta, which has a reopening plan tied largely to hospitalization numbers, is set to loosen public health orders for school sports, fitness centres and bars and restaurants on Monday. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is to announce reopening details next week, the province’s labour minister said without providing more detail. 

Tam said active COVID-19 cases across Canada are down 30 per cent from two weeks ago and deaths and hospitalizations are also trending down. 

But she noted active cases are still double what they were at the peak of the pandemic’s first wave last spring and new variants are cause for concern.

So far, 242 cases of the U.K. variant and 13 cases of the South African one have been detected in Canada, she said. 

“As each day brings us more headway against COVID-19, let’s hold fast to the measures we know are working,” she said. “The past weeks of our collective sacrifices made a difference.” 

Tam also urged football fans to be cautious this Super Bowl weekend. 

“Like many events and celebrations during COVID-19, we need to limit in-person contacts to our immediate household and, by connecting with others virtually, we can still enjoy the Super Bowl, but without the super-spreader.”

Ontario reported 45 new deaths from COVID-19 on Friday and 1,670 additional infections, 125 of which weren’t previously recorded. 

Quebec reported 1,101 COVID-19 infections and 33 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus,

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2021.

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press