As efforts continue to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, Justin Trudeau has announced an additional $1.1 billion for a national medical and research strategy.

In his daily briefing, the Prime Minister says part of that is the creation of a COVID-19 immunity task force, consisting of top health experts and scientists from leading institutions across the country. They will try to track and understand immunity to COVID-19.

$650 million will be spent on vaccine development which the Prime Minister says could take months. And 23 million of that is for Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) to accelerate development of a vaccine against COVID-19. This funding will support pre-clinical testing and clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, essential steps to ensuring that vaccines are effective and safe for human use.

$350 million is being spent on expanding testing and tracing the virus. $15 million will go to research on vaccines and treatment . Trudeau says, once they have potential vaccines and treatments, they can test a wide range of options. Under the plan, they will invest over $662 million for clinical trials.

[cjgx april 23 2020]