Canada to invest $1.1B in COVID-19 research and testing, says Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday $1.1 billion in new funding for a national medical and research strategy to address the COVID-19 pandemic that has already claimed over 2,000 lives in Canada and infected more than 41,000 Canadians.

Speaking at his daily press briefing in Ottawa, Trudeau said the strategy will be based on three pillars: research on vaccines and other treatments, support for clinical trials, and expanding national testing and modelling.

“Under this plan, we are investing close to $115 million for research into vaccines and treatments being developed in hospitals and universities across the country,” Trudeau said.

This money will come in addition to the funding the federal government has already provided to support vaccine development in Canada, he added.

Also, given the challenges of trying to acquire personal protective equipment on international markets, the federal government is putting in plans to produce these vaccines in Canada, Trudeau said.

Investment in treatments and clinical trials

“The second pillar of the plan is to make sure that once we have potential vaccines and treatments, we can test a wide range of options,” Trudeau said.

Ottawa will invest over $662 million for clinical trials led by Canada, he said.

“A vaccine is the long-term solution to this virus. But these drugs will take months to develop, test, and roll out,” Trudeau said. “So until we have something ready, we need to control the spread of the virus.”

Expanding national testing and modelling

Under the third pillar of this plan the federal government will be investing $350 million to expand national testing and modelling of COVID-19, including creating a special task force of leading medical experts to advise the government, Trudeau said.

The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force will operate under the direction of a leadership group, which will include Dr. David Naylor, Dr. Catherine Hankins, Dr. Tim Evans, Dr. Theresa Tam, and Dr. Mona Nemer, Trudeau said.

“We are bringing together top health experts and scientists from leading institutions across the country,” Trudeau said. “Canada’s best and brightest will be working on serology testing – blood testing – to track and understand immunity to COVID-19.”

The task force will be looking at key questions such as how many people beyond those who have already tested have had COVID-19, whether people who recover from COVID-19 acquire immunity and how long that immunity lasts, he added.

Over two years, health officials plan to test at least a million Canadians as part of this study, Trudeau said.

“The findings of the research will help with everything from roll outs of a potential vaccine, to determining which public health measures are most effective going forward,” Trudeau said.

“We will get valuable data, including disaggregated data to understand the impact on vulnerable populations.”

Increasing lab capacity

The federal government also plans to leverage new and existing lab capacity for research.

“The better we understand this virus, its spread, and its impact on different people – the better we can fight it, and eventually defeat it,” Trudeau said.

Testing is key in getting the economy back to normal as soon as possible, he said.

Canada has now reached 20,000 tests daily, nearly double the number of tests being done earlier this month.

But testing must increase even further before the economy is reopened, Trudeau said.

Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam has suggested that Canada needs to conduct at least 50,000 to 60,000 tests a day, while other experts insist that the number of tests should be double that, Trudeau said.

A long road to ‘back to normal’

“We know that everyone wants to know when this is going to be over, when we are going to be able to get back to normal life,” Trudeau said. “Well, until we have either a vaccine or significant treatments for COVID-19, we’re not going to be able to talk about getting back to normal.

“But in the coming months, we will be able to loosen a number of the restrictions and rules that we have right now on personal mobility in certain sectors, on the economy.”

Different provinces are in very different postures related to COVID-19 and will be taking decisions that are appropriate for them, Trudeau said.

“What we’re doing at the federal level is attempting to pool together and coordinate all the different provinces so that we’re working from a similar set of guidelines and principles to ensure that Canadians right across the country are being kept safe as we look to those next steps.”