(Reuters) – Moderna Inc delayed the shipment of 590,400 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine due to arrive in Canada this weekend, the federal procurement minister said on Thursday.
Moderna informed Canadian officials that the delay was due to a “delay in its quality assurance process,” Anita Anand said, adding that the company assured that the remaining doses will be shipped no later than Thursday next week.
Canada was to receive 846,000 doses of Moderna this week, of which 255,600 were delivered on Wednesday, a government source told Reuters.
“Once Moderna’s final quality assurance process has been completed, the doses will be delivered for shipment.”
Anand said that the US pharmaceutical company assured that the problem was a “small setback” and that it would not affect the shipment of 855,600 doses established for the week of April 5.
Canada has received 5.9 million doses of vaccines so far and expects to get 3.2 million next week, including from Pfizer Inc, AstraZeneca Plc of the United States and the rescheduled shipment from Moderna.
The country faces a possible third wave of infections as the most transmissible variant of the B.1.1.7 virus first discovered in the UK causes outbreaks at some hotspots.
It currently has 38,922 active cases and reported 5,202 new cases, as of March 25 (bit.ly/3tPN81C).
Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru, edited by Sherry Jacob-Phillips