O’Toole opined that Canadians deserve to have a “more normal summer,” and that the federal government should ramp up procurement of doses of the vaccine.
Tory leader Erin O'Toole criticized the Trudeau government on Thursday, saying that they need to find more doses of the vaccine so that every Canadian can be vaccinated by the May 24 long weekend.
O'Toole opined that Canadians deserve to have a "more normal summer," and that the federal government should ramp up procurement of doses of the vaccine.
According to Yahoo! News Canada, O'Toole, when asked how the government should go about doing that, said that they should take US President Biden's offer to receive surplus doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The US currently has 300 million doses of AstraZeneca in stock, of which 60 million-plus would be ready for prompt shipping.
"We are their NORAD, NATO, longstanding neighbours, allies, great partners. Our economies are directly integrated. We need the prime minister to fight for those vaccines so we can help move past this health crisis," said O'Toole during a press conference.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday at another press conference:
"We do not need to use AstraZeneca in our fight against COVID-19 in the next few months. I anticipate in the near future we'll share more details about our planning and who will receive more doses from here."
The US government has already supplied 1.5 million doses of the vaccine to Canada, which played a big part in Canada staying relatively on schedule with its vaccine rollout. However, some areas, such as Toronto, are still experiencing shortages.
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