The Manitoba government is set to provide an update on the COVID-19 situation in the province and will give more information on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout Wednesday afternoon.
Premier Brian Pallister and Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, will be speaking at a news conference at 12:30 p.m. at the Manitoba Legislative Building. CTV News Winnipeg will live-stream the event.
This news conference comes the same day that Health Canada announced it has approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Canada.
Pallister said more information about the rollout and prioritization of a vaccine in Manitoba will be announced today.
The initial doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected in Canada by the end of next week, with plans already in place to have the vaccine ready to be administered at 14 delivery sites in major cities across the country within one or two days of shipments arriving.
On Tuesday, Pallister said federal officials confirmed that the allocation of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is being upped in Manitoba due to its “disproportionately large at-risk Indigenous population.”
This means Manitoba’s allotment of the Moderna vaccine has been bumped from 66,000 doses in the first quarter to 75,600.
Since March, there have been 19,376 cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, as well as 420 deaths.
