The Globe and Mail is reporting that Alberta has stopped administering first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in favour of other types of immunization. The newspaper quotes Kristin Klein, the co-lead of the province’s vaccine task force, as saying the province has decided to shift to mRNA vaccines for first doses.The report says the move is partly due to the greater supply of mRNA shots, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna ones, and partly due to concerns over a rare blood clot condition linked to AstraZeneca.Klein says AstraZeneca shots will still be made available to t

Ontario will likely mix and match COVID-19 vaccine doses in light of uncertain future supply of all the shots approved for use in Canada. Health Minister Christine Elliott says it's likely that recipients of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine may receive a different shot for their second dose. The province is waiting for the results from a U.K. study on mixing different vaccines and on advice from a federal immunization panel. Quebec has also said that it plans to mix vaccines due to supply shortages, substituting the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the Moderna vaccines in order to quickly give booste

Katie Telford says she has asked herself in recent months whether she could have done more to fight sexual misconduct in Canada's armed forces. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief of staff testified at a parliamentary defence committee today. Telford says she didn't learn the content of a 2018 complaint against Canada's former top soldier until February when it was reported publicly. She has told MPs she was only told it was a ``personal misconduct'' complaint. Telford says since then, she has replayed past conversations in her head with female soldiers and asked herself what more she could

Statistics Canada says the economy lost 207,000 jobs in April as a new rise in COVID-19 cases led to renewed public health restrictions that closed businesses. The unemployment rate rose to 8.1 per cent from 7.5 per cent in March. Statistics Canada says the number of employed people in April working less than half their usual hours increased by 288,000 or 27.2 per cent. The losses in April nearly wiped out the 303,000 jobs added in March when the economy outpaced expectations and put the country about half a million jobs below pre-pandemic levels. More losses were seen in full-time work than

Canada's expert panel on vaccines upset numerous doctors and health professionals this week when they expressed a preference for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. But a new survey from Proof Strategies suggests lots of Canadians feel the same. More than eight in 10 people say that vaccines are safe and effective when asked specifically about Pfizer-BioNTech, and almost as many for Moderna. But trust falls to under 50 per cent for both Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Proof President Bruce MacLellan says weeks of warnings about a new and rare blood clotting syndrome have clearly taken

Canada achieved a new milestone in its vaccination program Wednesday, surpassing the vaccination rate in the United States for the first time. The Our World in Data project that tracks vaccinations given around the world, says on May 5, the United States injected doses at a rate of 6.4 doses for every 1,000 people. Canada injected 6.6 doses for every 1,000 people. Canada has been inching closer to the U.S.'s rate for weeks now, as supplies of vaccines shipped into Canada increased in April, and the United States has been slowing, after getting at least one dose to 44 per cent of Americans, an

Opposition parties rejected a call from Conservatives for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fire his chief of staff over the handling of a complaint against Canada's former top soldier. The Tories' motion called for Katie Telford to lose her job after a committee heard from a former Trudeau adviser suggesting that in 2018 she knew of a complaint involving former defence chief Jonathan Vance. Trudeau has defended Telford by saying no one in his office knew the issue was of a ``Me Too'' nature. The Conservatives contend that is not true and say if Telford failed to tell her boss about the complai

Canada is sending desperately needed medical supplies to India as the COVID-19 pandemic there spirals out of control. Global Affairs Canada says a shipment will include 25-thousand vials of the antiviral drug remdesivir and up to 350 ventilators from its emergency stockpile. The Canadian military will airlift the supplies to the subcontinent. India's COVID-19 deaths reached a new high of three-thousand, 780 in the last 24-hours as daily infections rose by more than 382,000. Foreign Policy CAN on Twitter: Minister Garneau and his Indian counterpart @DrSJaishankar had a warm virtual meeting at

Health Canada's chief medical adviser says her advice is still to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as you can, with whatever vaccine you can. Dr. Supriya Sharma says the risk of a new blood clotting syndrome from the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot is extremely low. A third Canadian has now died of the syndrome, a New Brunswick resident in their 60s. This morning, Canada became the first country in the world to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids as young as 12, effective immediately. Dr. Sharma says that as early as next week, Health Canada could begin examining whether people who