Quebec to speed up COVID-19 vaccination campaign by not holding 2nd doses in reserve

Quebec's Health Ministry announced on Thursdayit will use all of its doses of the PfizerBioNtech vaccine immediately instead of keeping half in reserve for therequired second dose.

Each person vaccinated must receive two doses for it to be effective long-term, and the province had been taking a cautious approach by holding the second dose in reserve.

Initially, Pfizer recommended that governments hold the second doses back, but now that deliveries for the coming weeks are guaranteed, the company saysthere is no longer a need to do so.

Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia have already startedto use the reserve doses immediately in orderto reach a larger portion of their population.

As of Dec. 31,29,250 people in Quebec had been vaccinated.

Quebec set a goal of inoculating675,000 by April 1but, based on the vaccinations to date, it will need to step up the pace considerably to get there.

According to the Health Ministry, Quebec has received a total of87,500 doses (55,000Pfizer-BioNTechand 32,500 from Moderna).

The six groups who are receiving the priority vaccines are residents in long-term care, health workers, people living in private seniors' residences, people in isolated communities and people aged 70 and over.