AstraZeneca Vaccine Becomes Third to be Approved by Health Canada

Friday morning, Health Canada approved AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine for use in Canada.

With an efficacy rate of 63.09% against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, AstraZeneca's shot, which was developed in cooperation with scientists from the University of Oxford, is currently recommended for adults 18 years and older.

The federal government has procured 20 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine which has to be administered in two shots spaced 8 to 12 weeks apart.

This is the third COVID-19 vaccine to be granted approval by Health Canada, along with the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. While those vaccines both use mRNA technology to communicate with antibodies, AstraZeneca's uses more conventional viral vector technology.

AstraZeneca has already been approved for use in Australia, the European Union, and the United Kingdom among others.