Canada 10 Dec(DT): Canadian health officials on Wednesday approved a COVID-19 vaccine made by U.S. drug company Pfizer for general use, becoming the second country worldwide to give it the go-ahead.
With the decision, Canada joined Britain in determining the vaccine is sufficiently safe and effective for general use. The U.K. and Bahrain approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within the past week. Canadian officials said Wednesday they expected to soon issue a decision regarding the Moderna vaccine.
Pfizer and BioNTech said that they would manufacture 50 million doses by the end of this year—a goal they have already hit, according to people familiar with the matter—and up to 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.