Paxlovid, an antiviral drug for treatment of COVID-19 made by Pfizer, was approved in Canada on Jan. 17. Health Canada says as of March 31, it has shipped enough doses for 150,000 people to the provinces and territories, allocated on a per capita basis.
But most of the provinces have only given a small percentage of their Paxlovid doses to patients so far, according to emailed responses to CBC News inquiries. In both Ontario and Alberta, for example, only about three per cent of their doses have actually reached patients.
Despite provinces having so many doses on hand that haven’t been used, people have