Canada announced Tuesday a deal to secure an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which would allow for more than half of Canadians to be inoculated before summer.

The American and German pharmaceutical giants will also accelerate deliveries of their jointly-developed vaccine over the coming months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference.

“Between mid-April and June, we will have enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 million people,” or more than half of Canada’s population of 38 million, he said.

This—along with the parallel rollout of a Moderna vaccine in December—puts Canada “on track to have every Canadian who wants a vaccine receive one by September,” he added.

Hedging bets, Canada has ordered and placed options with seven pharmaceutical firms for more than 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in total.

As of Tuesday, Canada counted more than 673,000 COVID-19 cases and 17,000 deaths.

© 2021 AFP