On Feb. 24, an elderly Canadian citizen, Nina Rockett from Canada turned 94. According to the handwritten sign outside her home in Toronto Saturday, all she wanted was COVID-19 vaccine as a gift on the day of her birth.

"I am 94 today! No gifts, just the vaccine please," it reads.

Nina's daughter, Margot Rockett, made and hung the banner outside her mother's house when she turned one year older on February 24, amid rising frustrations with the relatively slow pace of Canada's COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Canada has has made agreements for 400 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from seven different manufacturers, and began incoluations in Dec. 2020 with the first authorized vaccine candidate made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Friday, the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine was approved.

However, the nation, which has no vaccine production capacity of its own, hit a road bump over the past month with shortages and delivery delays linked to European manufacturing issues.

So far, under three percent of Canada's population of 38 million has received at least one vaccine dose.

"It was the night before my mother's birthday and I realized she is turning 94 and she has no vaccine," Margot told AFP reporters.

In a sad manner, Margot lamented "a lot of broken promises" and a lack of solid information from medical health sources and the government. Each of Canada's 10 provinces is responsible for administering vaccines purchased in bulk and distributed by the federal government.

"What is happening here is terrible, is shameful," said Margot, adding that she was fed up. "I thought I just want the world to know that she is 94 and she is worthy of having the vaccine."

As Margot spoke, the rumbling sounds of a passing vehicle honking its horn broke the uneasy quietness heard around the city that has been in a lockdown since Dec. 26.

It's been two days of "horns honking, thumbs up, (passersby) yelling I support you" and sharing stories of being unable to see their isolated elderly parents or grandparents for fear of unwittingly passing on the novel coronavirus to them, she said.

Margot said that she thinks everyone should join in on hanging banners outside their homes in order to raise awareness of the plight of the elderly in Canada.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Canada recorded more than 858,000 cases of the coronavirus and 21,865 deaths, most of which have been in Ontario and Quebec. Notably, nine out of 10 COVID-19 deaths were people aged 60 or over.