Manitoba halts new vaccination appointments at Winnipeg, Brandon sites as Pfizer delays continue

Manitoba is once again hitting pause on booking new vaccination appointments due to a supply slowdown from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The province announced Friday it will immediately halt bookings of new appointments at its immunization supersites in Winnipeg and Brandon, after the federal government advised of another reduction in shipments of thePfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Officials are reviewing current supply to see if any existing appointments will need to be cancelled.

"The known reductions over the next two weeks (Jan. 25 to Feb. 7) represent a 90 per cent decrease from what was projected last week," the province wrote in its vaccine update on Friday.

"So far, this means Manitoba will be receiving 32,760 fewer doses than had been expected."

Dr. Jazz Atwal, Manitoba's acting deputy chief public health officer, said Friday the delay is "disappointing" and "sort of unexpected,"but won't affect the province's long-term planning for thepandemic response or vaccination planning.

Manitoba's vaccination program is still in its early stages and the long-term outlook remains promising, he said.

"This isn't a 100-metre sprint. It's a marathon," Atwal said.

"This is a really big jigsaw puzzle, and we're just at the beginning of putting some pieces together.

"And so a delay of a few thousand doses really has no impact on what we're going to be doing from a public health perspective in relation to risk."

WATCH | Dr. Jazz Atwal says more vaccine delays disappointing, not a big deal in 'grand scheme':

More vaccine delays disappointing, not a big deal in 'grand scheme': Dr. Atwal

4 years ago

Duration 1:52

On the heels of more Pfizer vaccine delays, on Friday Dr. Jazz Atwal, acting deputy Manitoba chief public health officer, said 'a delay of a few thousand doses in the grand scheme of things really has no impact.'

This is the third time the province has been advised of delays or reductions in shipments from Pfizer, according to the release.

Last week, the province temporarilypaused new appointment bookingsdue to a delay, before reopeningbookingsthree days later.

On Wednesday, the province said a second delay meant it wouldvaccinate around 1,000 fewer people per day in February than originally planned,and said it would run out of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by Feb. 7 if no other shipments were received.

On Friday, the province learned it will receive less than half the number of doses it expected to get in the week of Feb. 1, dropping from 5,850 to 2,340, the release said.

Thompson supersite still set to open

No deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected next week, due to the reductions.

Pfizer announced last weekit was pausing some vaccine production lines at its facility in Puurs, Belgium, in order to expand long-term manufacturing capacity.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet Thursday that he has been assured Pfizer will catch up on promised vaccine delivery by the end of March.

A new vaccination supersite in Thompson will still open on Feb. 1 as planned, the province wrote in its release.

The site at the Thompson Regional Community Centre will initially use Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine the other vaccine approved by Health Canadathe province said. Eligible Manitobans can start calling to bookappointments on Monday.

A total of 23,884 vaccine doseshave been given in Manitoba, including 20,846 first doses and3,038 second doses.

Immunization teams are continuing to visit personal care homes. By the end of this week, teams will have been to 61 personal care homes covering an estimated 3,903 residents, vaccinating about 90 per cent of residents.

The teams will visit a further 62 sites next week, the province says.

Finalized guidance for health-care workers to help patients is available online, to help answer patient questions about the vaccine and pre-existing conditions.