Canada obtaining Johnson & Johnson doses as it works to vaccinate the holdouts

Canada will take delivery of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses in the coming weeks, with the goal of boosting the vaccination rate amongholdouts.

A spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada says the government expects to take delivery soonof 20,000 doses of the single-shot vaccine from France. Those doses will be distributed to the provinces.

The vaccine hasn't yet been administered in Canada, despite the fact thatHealth Canada approved it for use in March. Just over 9,000 Canadian residents have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in other countries since June, according to Public Health Agency of Canada data.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia have requested tens of thousands of doses of the vaccine to increase uptake among the vaccine-hesitant.

In a news release earlier last month, Premier Jason Kenney said some Albertans in areas of low vaccine uptake had expressed a preference for the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, also known as the Janssen vaccine.

The Alberta government requested 20,000 doses from the federal government. At the time, Canada didn't have any of the doses on hand.

In late April, roughly300,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine were shipped to Canada. Health Canada rejected them after an investigation because of ongoing concerns about the third-party manufacturer of these shots, a Maryland-based company called Emergent.

Workers at the company's Baltimore plant inadvertently ruined some 15 million doses of this vaccine by mixing up ingredients intended for another product the vaccine made by AstraZeneca.

The new doses obtained fromEurope "have been verified by Health Canada to meet safety, qualityand efficacy standards," Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, saidFriday.

Andrew McKendrick, aspokesperson forHealth MinisterJean-Yves Duclos, said Ontario and New Brunswick might also wantsmall shipments.

McKendricksaid federal guidance on who should receive which vaccines and when remains unchanged. He said one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccineis better than no vaccine at all heading into the winter.

Isaac Bogoch, aphysician andscientist who studiesinfectious diseases,said people should follow a single dose of theJohnson & Johnson vaccinewith a booster shot of another approved vaccine.

"If you give it asone shot, you certainly have meaningful protection against getting COVID-19 and, of course, having a severe outcome like hospitalization and death," Bogoch told CBC News Network.

"But if you are comparing Johnson & Johnson(to an mRNAvaccine), the one shot Johnson & Johnsondoesn't stand up. Yes, there is some protection, but you can get muchbetter protection with two doses of the vaccine."

Bogoch acknowledgedthat for those unwilling to receivean mRNA vaccine, taking the one-shot vaccine is better than no protection at all.

According to Health Canada, clinical trials showed that startingtwo weeks aftervaccination with the single-doseJohnson & Johnson adenovirus vector vaccine, the vaccine is 66 per cent effective in protecting trial participants from COVID-19.