Ontarians 65 and older will not be receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says the province intends to follow advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI); the independent panel that sets guidelines for vaccine deployment, which recommends against giving it to anyone in that age group.

The committee cites concern about limited data on how it’ll work in older populations even though Health Canada approved the AstraZeneca vaccine last Friday, determining it’s safe for all adults.

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says NACI is prepared to update its guidance ”as they see more and more real world data,” but for now it should be directed at younger Canadians.

Dr. Tam adds some groups that were ”potentially prioritized a little bit later on” will have a change to get shots earlier because of the committee’s recommendation.

Health officials are under the gun to quickly establish priorities since 300,000 of the 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca; set to arrive tomorrow, expire in one month.