BREAKING: Canada will receive 249,000 Pfizer vaccines as early as next week

At a press conference Monday morning, Justin Trudeau announced that Canada could receive a delivery of 249,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine as early as next week, pending Health Canada approval. The Pfizer version is a two-dose vaccine, Canada would need another 249,000 within three weeks of the first dose.

"This will move us forward on our whole timeline of vaccine rollout, and is a positive development in getting Canadians protected as soon as possible," said Trudeau.

"We are facing the largest immunization in the history of our country."

"While vaccines are on the horizon. they cannot protect you if you get COVID-19 now. I know this winter will be hard, especially with the holidays fast approaching. But we're coming into the final miles of this crisis," said Trudeau. "Let's buckle down and do what's necessary to keep ourselves and others safe."

The relatively low number of doses compared to Canada's population of over 37 million is part of the Trudeau Liberals' plans to "start with a smaller number and rapidly scale up as the flow of vaccine doses increases rapidly."

"This is a good thing to allow the folks on the ground to be able to deliver certainly this Pfizer vaccine, which has a high degree of complexity in its delivery."

When asked who would be receiving the potential doses, Trudeau said that the contract that was emended with Pfizer "allows for them—they pledge, they engage to delivery 249,000 doses to Canada before the end of December. In terms of distribution, next week's distribution will happen through 14 different sites that have been identified across the country. One in each province, and two in our four largest provinces."

"This is to be able to initially get doses out to the most vulnerable people, but also to demonstrate and to operationalize what is going to be an incredible complex mobilization of vaccines across the country," Trudeau said. "It is a gradual process that is going to begin this coming week—next week. In the beginning, there will be smaller amounts of vaccines because we are both standing up our delivery mechanisms, but also because manufacturers are limited in what they're able to produce for this vaccine."

Trudeau said that large, mass manufacturing would happen into 2021.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.