Canada could get up to 1.1 million additional doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March

Canada could get up to 1.1 million additional doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March through the global vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX.

That's if and when it's approved by Health Canada, and would be over and above Ottawa's existing agreement with the drugmaker.

And since there is the potential for production delays, COVAX is giving countries a range of potential deliveries.

Canada was told it would get between 1.9 million and 3.2 million doses by the end of June, with between 500,000 and 1.1 million of those arriving before the end of next month.

The vaccine alliance was established last year as part of an international effort to prevent wealthy countries from snapping up all available vaccines or COVID-19 treatment drugs, leaving the world's poorest nations to go without.

Canada bought into it with $440 million in September, half of which secured doses for Canadians, and the other half buys doses for 92 nations that need help to purchase vaccines.