The federal government also announced a $214 million investment for Canadian-made COVID-19 vaccine development.
Up to $173 million will be allocated to Medicago to advance their vaccine candidate and to create a production facility in Quebec City. The federal government has reached an agreement with the company to access 76 million doses of their vaccine.
Additionally, up to $18.2 million is being allocated to Vancouver-based Precision NanoSystems to progress their vaccine candidate development and testing.
“Canadians researchers are doing great work and we’re here to support that,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister also said Canada has received hundreds of thousands of Abbott Laboratories’ Panbio COVID-19 Rapid Test, currently being distributed across the country.
He added that two trucks of the company’s ID NOW tests have arrived in Ontario, with more to come soon.
When asked why these tests were distributed to Ontario but now Quebec, where the highest care numbers are, Dr. Tam said there has been an “arrangement agreement” between provinces and territories in terms of per capita allocation of 80 per cent of the supply.
“This is just the first little bit of delivery,” she said. “What I was told…is that every province will get some per capita allocation and that there is an actual mechanism for provinces to request surge capacity, should they need it.”
