A temporary manufacturing shutdown at Pfizer will take at least 13,500 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine out of Nova Scotia's supply over the next couple of months.
The supply stoppage is related to the company upgrading its Belgium facilities.
In a report issued early Tuesday afternoon, the province said it expects to receive 59,850 doses of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in January and February. But it’s likely the Pfizer portion of that supply will go down even further. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced later Tuesday that Canada won’t receive any Pfizer vaccine at all next week.
“There have been concerns about the supply chain and as the Pfizer plan in Belgium is temporarily shut down in order to build up its operations to increase supply,” Premier Stephen McNeil said at a COVID-19 briefing Tuesday in Halifax.
“We continue to work with the federal government and it is our hope that this temporary shutdown will not last long and any supply issues will be resolved as soon as possible.”
The shortfall is expected to be made up by March and so the delays aren't likely to affect the province's overall vaccine distribution schedule, reporters were told at a vaccine program technical briefing.
The province hopes to vaccinate everyone who wants a shot by October.
Rollout slowdown
At the briefing Tuesday, Dr. Robert Strang, chief medical officer of health, said the Pfizer disruption will slow down the rollout.
"We can only do so much with the amount of vaccine we have.”
But he said the shutdown will allow Pfizer to greatly increase its capacity “so it’s a bit of short-term pain for a long-term gain and we continue to be told any reduction we’re getting for February will be added to our supply that we can expect in March.”
As of Jan. 18, there were 8,520 doses administered in Nova Scotia at clinics for health-care workers and long-term-care residents at Northwood Halifax. Of those, 2,215 Nova Scotians have received their second dose.
Starting this week, the long-term-care phase of the immunization program will expand to Northwood’s Bedford campus, Oceanview Continuing Care Centre in Dartmouth, Shannex Parkstone Enhanced Care in Clayton Park, Northside Community Guest Home in North Sydney and Harbourstone Enhanced Care in Sydney.
Clinics for health-care workers expanded Tuesday when Zoe Ahern, a nurse who works in the emergency department at Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro, was the first health-care worker in the northern health zone to be immunized.
Vaccination clinics have now been established in all health zones, the premier said at the briefing.
Upcoming rapid testing pop-up site for #COVID19
— Nova Scotia Health (@HealthNS) January 19, 2021
-- Wednesday, Jan. 20 - Wolfville Lions Club, 36 Elm Ave. from 1 to 6 p.m.
For more information, visit: https://t.co/F36XrurmnN pic.twitter.com/jCDiduLZ0X
Prototype clincs
Over the next three months, the province will also launch “prototype clinics” to gear up for the delivery of large quantities of vaccine as supply increases. Those include community clinics for those aged 80 and over and clinics in First Nations and African Nova Scotian communities delivered by physicians and pharmacists.
Appointment letters from the government health insurance program MSI will be sent out over the coming days, Strang said at the briefing.
By months’ end the province plans to establish three more vaccine freezers in Antigonish, Amherst and Bridgewater that can handle both the “ultra-cold” storage needs of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as well as other types of COVID-19 vaccine. This will bring the total cold storage sites to nine.
Also in the next 30 days, three health-care worker clinics at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Yarmouth Regional Hospital and St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish will be established, as well as more clinics in long-term care facilities, regional rehabilitation centres and adult residential centres.
Over the next 60 to 90 days, the province will open health-care worker clinics in Amherst and Bridgewater and launch clinics for seniors who are 80 and older in Halifax and Truro; set up mass immunization clinics in all communities with cold storage sites; and expand health-care worker clinics beyond those most closely involved in COVID-19 response, for example primary care physicians, pharmacists and homecare workers.
The province has also engaged Doctors Nova Scotia and the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia on how their members can support vaccine delivery in the community.
Four new cases reported
Nova Scotia reported four new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. A case in the northern health zone is a close contact of a previously reported case.
The other three cases are in the central zone and are related to travel outside Atlantic Canada. The people are self-isolating, as required.
One of the cases is a student who virtually attends two Nova Scotia universities, the Health Department said in a news release. The student lives off-campus.
Nova Scotia Health Authority's labs completed 2,016 Nova Scotia tests on Jan. 18.
Since Oct. 1, Nova Scotia has completed 144,318 tests. There have been 472 positive COVID-19 cases and no deaths. No one is in hospital. Cases range in age from under 10 to over 70. Four hundred and fifty cases are now resolved.
At the news briefing, Strang said a COVID-19 outbreak at the Eden Valley Poultry plant in Berwick was officially over after a 28-day monitoring period.
Last month Eden Valley was ordered to close until Dec. 28 by the Nova Scotia Health Authority after at least six people became ill with the virus. As a precaution, Eden Valley’s 440 active employees were asked to self-isolate even if they had not interacted with anyone who tested positive.
Strang also noted some businesses and even hospitals have been turning away visitors because they live in areas where COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred.
“As long as our COVID risk remains low, there is now travel restriction within Nova Scotia and nobody should be denied service or access because they just happen to come from one part of the province to another.”
Strang said public health is working closely with the Nova Scotia Health Authority about who they are not allowing into their facilities “as we recognize there needs to be a balancing of the risk of introducing COVID-19 into health-care facilities but also the important need of people to visit loved ones who are in the hospital.”
