Canada is focusing its efforts on a new national medical and research strategy worth $1.1 billion. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement Thursday morning.
Trudeau says they will be working on discovering a vaccine for COVID-19 and then manufacturing it here in Canada.
The federal government is putting $115 million more into research into vaccines and treatments, on top of already existing funding.
Trudeau says vaccines will take months to test and up to a year to get out to people.
“The freedom we’ll have in the meantime will depend on the decisions and advice of medical experts on how to keep ourselves safe, we know it may be a long while before a vaccine and there are discussions around treatments for COVID-19 that might work as well as a vaccine,” Trudeau said.
An additional $350 million is going towards national testing and modelling which will be helmed by a special task force.
$662 million will be used for clinical trials and other coronavirus related research.
