Sonia Sidhu, Member of Parliament for Brampton South, issued the following statement on the Health Canada authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID19 vaccine:

December 10, 2020 – Brampton

“Yesterday was a historic day in Canada as we saw the authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccine on our soil. 

This is good news for Bramptonians and I want to assure you that we are holding these vaccines up to our usual world-class standards. The authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine means that it meets our stringent safety and quality requirements.

Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada will closely monitor the safety of the vaccine once it is on the market and will not hesitate to take action if any safety concerns are identified.

I’m proud to sit on the Standing Committee on Health (HESA) which was one of the first committees to be assembled in the last Parliamentary session when the pandemic hit. Our work has helped guide much of the pandemic response, including the preparation for vaccines and I’ve been honoured to bring voices from our community forward. 

It’s been an important week in our government’s procurement efforts as well. By the end of December, Canada is set to receive up to 249,000 doses of this vaccine, enough to vaccinate 124,500 people. Our government has purchased 20 million doses of the vaccine and we have the option to buy 56 million more. Pfizer will be shipping 30,000 doses to Canada leaving on Friday and arriving over the weekend for delivery on Monday to the 14 sites previously identified by the provinces and territories. 

It will be a long road but we’ve already made so much progress together. Health officials have released a new vaccination timeline, estimating that most vaccinations will occur between April and December 2021 - with 40 to 50 percent of Canadians getting their vaccines by June.

I’m eager to see these vaccines arrive here in Brampton South and would like to thank all of the incredibly hard-working regulators at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada for their tireless efforts.”