Canada to approve mixing and matching of second doses

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) will be holding a press conference in Ottawa at noon, when they’ll reportedly announce new guidelines regarding mixing and matching second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. CBC is reporting that NACI will approve the interchangeable use of AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna as second doses.

In Manitoba, which is currently North America’s COVID-19 hotspot, officials announced yesterday that they’ve already made the change to the province’s vaccine rollout to allow AstraZeneca recipients to get an MRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) as their second dose.

The Manitoba decision is based research from Spain and the U.K. that found mixing vaccines is safe and provides a good immune response.

If other provinces follow suit, it will likely speed up Canada’s effort to get people fully vaccinated as there will be millions of Pfizer doses arriving in the country every week.

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