Canada signs deal to secure 20mn more coronavirus vaccine doses

File Photo (Reuters)

Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that the country has signed a deal to secure 20 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses.

Addressing the media here, Trudeau said the agreement was signed with AstraZeneca for access to a vaccine prospect now being developed at Oxford University, CBC News reported.

"We`ve been guided by science since the very beginning and right now, both the Covid-19 vaccine task force and the immunity task force are doing important work to help us identify the most promising vaccine options and strategies," he said.

With the new deal, the Trudeau government has secured access to six leading vaccine candidates so far.

However, none of the candidates has been shown to work so far.

Health Canada has said that it will review the evidence on safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality for each vaccine to determine if individual vaccines will be approved for use in the country before they are made available to citizens.

This latest development came days after Trudeau announced that a second coronavirus wave has started in the country amid concerns over a possible national lockdown.

"In our four biggest provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec), the second wave isn`t just starting, it`s already underway. We`re on the brink of a fall that could be much worse than the spring," Trudeau said a televised address to the nation on September 23.

The country witnessed a sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases, from about 300 per day in August to a record high of 1,248 on September 22.

Canada has so far reported more than 1,53,770 coronavirus cases, with 9,313 deaths.