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Feds issue new COVID vaccine guidance, says provinces now responsible for buying them

TORONTO – Federal funding for COVID-19 vaccines will stop this year and the provinces and territories will be responsible for buying them, as well as determining the timing of the vaccinations, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.

The agency published the information online on Friday, along with the National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s COVID-19 vaccine guidance for 2025 through to the summer of 2026.

NACI recommended that seniors who are 80 years and older, residents of long-term care homes, and adults and children six months and older who are moderately to severely immunocompromised should get two doses of COVID-19 vaccine per year.

It also recommended that all adults 65 years and older, health-care workers and people at higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness should get one shot a year if they’ve previously been vaccinated.

People considered at higher risk include those with underlying medical conditions; pregnant women; people from First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities; and members of racialized communities, NACI said.