The Alberta government is waiting for the federal government to iron out the details of how the newly-approved AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed throughout Canada.

Pfizer will supply a minimum of 40 million doses and up to 76 million doses of its messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine developed with BioNTech, BNT162b2. For them, one dose of the Pfizer vaccine stimulated "very strong" antibody responses, the study said, as well as "very strong T-cell responses", referring to another arm of the immune system.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday published a report of the most common side effects seen in trial participants who received Johnson & Johnson's one-shot COVID-19 vaccine.

Ontario reported 1,258 new cases of COVID-19 and 28 more deaths linked to the virus on Friday, with 362 of them in Toronto, 274 in Peel Region and 104 in York Region. But by the end of March, J&J has said it can supply enough to vaccinate 20 million people, a much-needed boost to stretched supplies. "Because for AstraZeneca, like we were for Pfizer and Moderna, we're ready to get doses rolling".

Of the new Nova Scotia cases, the province says two are related to travel outside Atlantic Canada. "We need to get them protected".

"Here is the bottom line".

India is the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer and has pledged to donate millions of doses to neighboring countries. The companies have contracted to deliver 200 million doses to locations in the U.S.by May, and hope to ship 2 billion doses globally by the end of the year.

Trudeau said as vaccinations ramp up across the country, many provinces have expanded the number of health professions able to administer a COVID-19 vaccine, and he asked dentists, midwives, pharmacy technicians and retired nurses to lend a hand in the rollout.

The FDA released its own analysis ahead of the meeting that showed the vaccine was highly effective in preventing severe Covid-19, including newer variants.

Not only is Johnson & Johnson's version the only one that requires only one dose, it can also be stored in regular refrigerators.

Pfizer and Moderna are in the midst of testing their vaccines in children and teen ages 12 to 15 and 12 to 17, respectively, and both companies expect to have data by June.

"I think it's going to be huge", said Dr Virginia Caine, director of the public health department in Marion County, Indiana, which includes Indianapolis.

Original data suggested one dose gave around 50 percent more protection against the virus while two doses gave about 95 percent protection.

He said public health measures aimed at halting transmission such as physical distancing and limiting contacts remain important, adding that jurisdictions that have recently reopened need to keep a keen eye on transmission rates.

"What we really are hoping for and what we want out of these vaccines is that we keep people out of the hospital and we keep people from dying", said Joshua Barocas, an infectious-disease physician at Boston Medical Center.

In a global trial of nearly 40,000 people, the efficacy against severe disease was 85.4 percent, but it fell to 66.1 percent when including moderate forms of the disease.