Coronavirus (COVID-19) National News

The Public Health Agency says this coming week will be the last in which Canada will receive fewer than 1 million doses over a seven-day period.

He said some Canadians cannot be vaccinated because of medical conditions, and noted people who are not prioritized for shots will have to wait much longer than others.

The province's health delivery agency issued a statement Saturday that it was nearing the maximum number of bookings it could schedule for the current supply of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Almost 100,000 women aged 20 and up have exited the labour market entirely, compared with fewer than 10,000 men, says a report co-authored by Desjardins and RBC.

At least nine European countries hit pause on their use of AstraZeneca's doses – some entirely, and others only on specific batches – pending further investigation of blood clots, though none suggested there is a link between the clots and getting the vaccine.

March 11 is now a national day of remembrance because it is the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic.

"The biggest issue is that we have a fundamental right to enter Canada and this is a limit on that right and it's not a justified limit," said Christine Van Geyn, litigation director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

Canada pre-ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, which is the first and only one in Canada's vaccine plan that needs only one dose.

The influx of new shots comes as the federal government looks for vaccine-makers to finalize delivery of a total of eight million doses by March 31.

The vaccine had a 72 per cent efficacy in preventing COVID infections after 28 days in the company's U.S. trials. The efficacy dropped to 66 per cent when averaging in results from other global trials.