Sylvie Claire / December 12, 2020
Quebeckers will begin to be vaccinated on Monday, five days after Health Canada's green light for the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance vaccine against Covid-19, Quebec Prime Minister François Legault announced on Friday.
Residents or employees of two retirement homes, one located in Montreal and the other in Quebec, will be vaccinated first, the Quebec government said in a press release.
In the first wave of the pandemic, nursing homes accounted for more than 80% of total deaths in the province. "We see the light at the end of the tunnel, moreover on Monday we will begin to vaccinate the first people in Quebec," François Legault said during a press briefing, stressing a "very important step". "Obviously not everyone will be vaccinated in the next few days, in the coming weeks, so you have to be patient, you have to be careful," he added.
Canada, the third country to approve the Pfizer vaccine after the United Kingdom and Bahrain, must receive 249,000 doses by the end of the month, including 30,000 as of next week, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The first vaccines have left Belgium and are expected in Canada in the coming days, authorities said. Immunization should start immediately in 14 centers across the country.