Trudeau hopes to see Pfizer vaccine in Canada by ‘early next year,’ calls news ‘encouraging’

Early Monday morning, Pfizer announced that its vaccine candidate had shown a resounding 90 percent effectiveness, with little or no side effects. Trudeau said that while he hopes to see the vaccine available to Canadians by early in the spring, he warns that we aren't quite out of the woods yet.

Trudeau called the news "encouraging," but pointed to record highs in cases across Canada, including in Ontario, which saw 1,328 new cases announced on Mondays.

The Canadian government purchased over 70 million doses of candidate vaccines from several companies earlier this year, including 20 million of Pfizer's. Trudeau said that if the vaccine was given the green light from Health Canada, more doses would be purchased.

“We hope to see vaccines landing in the early next year but between now and then it's really really important that we double down on our efforts,” said Trudeau.

“We need to make sure we are controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the coming months so that when vaccines get here we will be able to act quickly to protect all Canadians.”