Quebec adjusting COVID-19 vaccine appointments as fewer Pfizer doses arriving than expected

MONTREAL -

New projections showing a drop in the delivery of Pfizer vaccine doses to Canada in the first two weeks of July have forced Quebec to adjust its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

No additional appointments will be made during the first two weeks of July in Quebec, the Ministry of Health and Social Services announced in a press release Wednesday.

According to the ministry, Quebec is expecting to receive 600,000 fewer doses of the Pfizer vaccine during the weeks of July 5 and July 12.

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Appointments that have already been made or brought forward for those weeks will still be honoured, the press release states.

However, anyone else who plans to move up their appointment for a second dose of Pfizer will be offered time slots later this summer, in late July or August.

A decrease in walk-in clinic availability for the Pfizer vaccine is also expected in some areas in the coming weeks.

Advancing the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine is not mandatory, the ministry notes, but is helpful to achieve targeted mass immunization by the end of the summer more quickly.

Quebec remains on course to have 75 per cent of Quebecers aged 12 and up vaccinated by August 31.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 17, 2021.