COVID-19 Update for October 23 2020 – 12:30PM

During Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 update this morning, he announced an investment of $214 million for a made-in-Canada vaccine.

Towards a Vaccine

Citing Canadian “know-how” as a strength in this pandemic, Trudeau said the government’s investment in a vaccine will benefit further research and development. This federal money includes $173 million for Medicago, a Quebec-based biopharmaceutical company, to secure 76 million doses and $18.2 million to Vancouver’s Precision NanoSystems for its vaccine research.

The government will be investing an additional $23 million through the Industrial Research Assistance Program for other Canadian company’s early stage vaccine research.

The Prime Minister also announced the government has received hundreds of thousands of Abbott rapid pen tests and is working to ensure they are going to be deployed across Canada immediately in areas that need it most. He also shared that two trucks of other Abbott rapid tests have already arrived in Ontario.

Wrapping up his update, Trudeau implored Canadians to continue following public health guidelines and take the steps necessary to flatten the curve in Canada. He cautioned Canadians to think about our older and more vulnerable populations and again encouraged Canadians to download the federal COVID-19 Alert app. Yesterday, Canada set a new record for new COVID-19 cases in one day.