NACI will reportedly recommend mixing COVID-19 vaccine doses

As second doses begin to ramp up nationwide, new guidance on COVID-19 vaccine mixing could be coming imminently.

The CBC is reporting that the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) will update its guidance soon, recommending that a second shot of a mRna vaccine, Moderna or Pfizer, can be the follow-up to a first dose of AstraZeneca.

The new guidance will also reportedly advise that people who got one of the mRna shots as their first dose will be able to take either as their second.

Federal officials will be holding a news conference on Tuesday to provide an update on COVID-19, including NACI’s guidance on the interchangeability of vaccines.

NACI had been holding out on more research from around the world. Now, countries like the U.K. and Spain have found mixing and matching is indeed safe and effective.

The current NACI guidance states that mixing should only be an option between mRna vaccines if the same first dose is unavailable.

Last week, the panel changed its guidance on when to give people their second dose. NACI says now that there’s a greater vaccine supply flowing into Canada, second shots should be given out as soon as possible.

Manitoba is the first province to allow vaccine mixing with the province announcing Monday that any resident who received a first shot of AstraZeneca can get a second dose of Pfizer or Moderna.

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Ontario announced last week that it would shorten the minimum interval for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to just four weeks, starting with those 80 and older.

The accelerated second dose plan aims to have the majority of Ontario residents who choose to get the vaccine be fully vaccinated by the end of summer.

Health Canada has added another month to the shelf life of thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that were due to expire in the province on Monday.

The second doses of AstraZeneca are being offered to people who received their first shot between March 10 and March 19. The shots are being offered through select pharmacies at a 10-week interval in order to make use of them before expiration.

More than 21 million Canadians have at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine but just over two million of those have been fully vaccinated.

Canada is set to receive 2.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses this week thanks to an increase in planned deliveries from Pfizer.

Pfizer is increasing its deliveries to 2.4 million doses per week in June. The other 500,000 shots due to arrive this week will come from Moderna.