Ontario set to reveal plan for remaining doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
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Ontarians are set to find out Friday what the province plans to do with its remaining doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and hundreds of thousands of shots expected to arrive soon.
Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, and Dr. Dirk Huyer, co-ordinator of the provincial outbreak response, are scheduled to hold a briefing for media at 10 a.m. ET. You can watch the news conference live in this story.
About 850,000 people in Ontario received a first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine before the province pushed pause on administering any further doses on May 11 over concerns about rare but potentially fatal blood cots.
According to officials, there are tens of thousands of doses remaining from earlier shipments, most of which are set to expire by the end of the month. Ontario also expected some 254,000 more doses to land this week, though it is not clear if the shipment has already arrived.
During an earlier vaccine briefing, officials said they were considering options for what to do with the doses. They said they were closely watching results from the United Kingdom, where researchers are studying the implications of mixing the AstraZeneca vaccine with mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna.
Health Minister Christine Elliott has said Ontario is ready to get the doses into arms if a decision is made to administer the shots currently in the province.
“We are waiting for the final recommendations (from experts) on what we should do with the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Elliott said.
“Data from the U.K. indicate that any problems with the second shot are far less,” she said.
The risk of a blood clot from a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is estimated to be roughly one in 55,000. The risk for a second shot is about one in 1,000,000, officials said earlier this month.
Justin Bates, head of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, said the organization was in confidential discussions with the province about using the AstraZeneca, something he said should be done.
“Absolutely. We have a shared objective with the ministry to ensure that we use, wherever appropriate and feasible, all of the AstraZeneca remaining doses,” he said.
If approved, Bates said it would take a concerted effort to get the shots in arms before expiry, involving reaching out patients to schedule an appointment. They would also need to provide informed consent around dosage intervals and relative risks, which he said were far outweighed by the potential benefits.
“We’re just waiting for direction,” Bates said. “We can move quickly.”