Coronavirus (COVID-19) National News

Canada has pre-purchased 10 million doses, with options to buy another 28 million. It's not expected that any will flow to Canada until at least April.

Similar advice initially issued in Europe began to be revisited Monday, with France overturning its earlier decision against using it on seniors, and Germany in the midst of reconsidering it.

Canada has ordered 24 million doses of the vaccine, with the majority to be delivered from the United States between April and September.

Canada is to get 20 million doses of AstraZeneca between April and September.

"It will it even (be) before September, I think, depending on a number of factors, such as vaccine uptake, ongoing monitoring of other variants, and how vaccine coverage is provided."

The expected influx of vaccine shots follows news on Friday that the millionth Canadian had received a first dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.

The Public Health Agency of Canada released modelling suggesting that while infections continue to decline nationally, the spread of virus mutations threatens to reverse that progress.

Health Canada says provinces expecting deliveries of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine can expect them to arrive at least a day behind schedule but all doses will be in the country by Friday.

Among the items on the group's agenda will be coming up with ways to encourage employees to get vaccinated and protocols for using rapid tests.

An analysis of federal data by The Canadian Press shows that the city had on average 148,479 recipients during each four-week pay period for the pandemic aid.