Health Canada will authorize a revised version of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine targeting the Omicron variant on Thursday, confirmed The Press.
Posted at 4:50 p.m.
Updated at 5:01 p.m.
Twenty-four hours after the United States, Ottawa will confirm Thursday to give the green light to the administration of a new generation of anti-COVID-19 vaccine, said to be bivalent. This new version targets both the original strain of the coronavirus, as well as the Omicron BA.1 sub-variant. Details on supply and availability will be announced at a later date.
The COVID-19 vaccines currently available in Canada are designed to target only the original strain of the virus. Since the start of the pandemic, however, the virus has continued to mutate and show itself to be more adept at immune escape.
Moderna had submitted its request to Health Canada for this new generation of vaccine on June 30.
12 million doses
The possibility of a bivalent vaccine, considered more “resistant” to the Omicron vaccine and its many sub-variants, has been talking about for a few months now all over the world. In Canada, Ottawa has already announced that it has secured nearly 12 million doses of the new bivalent vaccine for a first delivery. Of the number, 2.7 million should return to Quebec, under the prorata of the Canadian population, specified Wednesday the ministry of Health and social Services (MSSS).
Last week, saying it feared an increase in the spread of COVID-19 at the start of the school year, Quebec public health had also anticipated the vaccination campaign for all 18 years and over. Since last Wednesday, they can make an appointment to obtain a booster dose, if their last dose dates back more than five months.
At that time, the National Director of Public Health, Dr.r Luc Boileau, had maintained that the vaccine adapted to Omicron should be available in Quebec “within less than two weeks”.
“When the new vaccine arrives, we will change it for the new vaccine. We will not sell the stocks we have of the current vaccine, ”also indicated Mr. Boileau. At her side, the microbiologist-infectiologist and president of the Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec (CIQ), the DD Caroline Quach, however, had warned that for the moment, this bivalent vaccine would only be available for people aged 18 and over. The youngest will have to make do with the current vaccine for now, she added.
In mid-August, Federal Public Health had assured “work as quickly as possible” to approve the new vaccines adapted to Omicron from Moderna and Pfizer pharmaceuticals, judging that at the dawn of a potential eighth wave of COVID-19 this fall, getting a booster dose with the current vaccine is a “top priority.”
With Agence France-Presse (AFP) and The Canadian Press