Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
Vassy:
That is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau outside of Rideau cottage, addressing a number of questions from reporters. I’ll start off with the substance of the announcement that he made, sort of multipronged. First of all, $240 million going towards on-line services for primary health care as well as mental health care. Then $175 million for a company called a absellera. My understanding is that is a company that has developeded a platform through which can – research done around using antibodis from COVID-19 to actually treat the disease. So, that is a part of the sort of research package that the federal government has funded and put forth so far. and then the Prime Minister indicated that in about 13 minutes’ time, we’ll hear from anita annan around the creation of what he calls a national supply council to deal with the re-opening of economies and having enough personal protective equipment, masks or hand sanitizer to be able to successfully do that. That is where I want to bring in My colleague, david Cochrane. a lot of questions Prime Minister, david, around re-opening the economy and something we were talking about prior to this, a problem with a new spartan test kit, the pause in that approval process has caused and he got questions what does that mean for testing capacity in provinces? for example, in Quebec, if they can’t do enough tests, is it safe for them to re-open?
Reporter:
It is important-to-address that with the setback with the spartan test cube, which they believe is a soluble problem, just not right now, no province is seeing their test capacity go down because of this. They just can’t escalate it and expand it at the scale at which they were hoping and escalated and expanding and broaden testing is a key part, the experts tell us, on being able to safely re-open not justs the economy, but re-open society. and let people get back to some semblance of what is normal. So, without this being able to go broadly into the canadian testing marketplace, we are left with what we have. Thater lot of questions there about the various provinces to taking stems to re-open their bubble, like in newfoundland and New Brunswick and the more aggressive re-openings of economic activity in some provinces. This is going to be a real big experiment for Canada. We won’t find out tomorrow if it works. We’ll find out about 10 days to two weeks from tomorrow when we see if new testing shows a growth in cases and surge in positive tests in the economies that are gradually re-opening and whether that means a scaling back of what we do economyically or whether the test results are good and there can be a further broadening after that. The Prime Minister was asked point blank, if the provinces screw this up a province screws this up, can the federal government step in and stop it. I don’t think that’s something that the Prime Minister wants to do. That is akin to the concerns earlier in this crisis about using the emergencies which is something that justin trudeau and the premiers have made clear they don’t want to see happen in this country and I can’t imagine a fo*uk justin trudeau were to tele gault of – if Justin Trudeau were to Tell premier legault that he was doing it wrong. The data in places like Saskatchewan and Quebec where the transmission rate is still higher than one person infecting one person, you want it down to r-naught or r-0. Quebec and Saskatchewan are still above the r-1 level. That mean they’re on track to double over a certain period of days and montreal in particular is the epicenter for this disease in Canada. So there are significant challenges for provinces that are taking these steps to re-open where there is still high rates of growth in their population. Less severe in New Brunswick, newfoundland or Prince Edward Island where there are no new active cases right now. But this is a significant, societal test and political test as provinces move ahead.
Vassy:
and Dr. Teresa tam, who we’re scheduled to hear from in about 10 minute’s time, will be asked about this. I want to bring in peter Lin, a family physician and CBC medical contributor. To see you.
Good to sew you, Vassy.
Vassy:
These are cube tests that are supposed to work very quickly. Lots of them on order. I think a million on order in Ontario. 100, 000 on order in Alberta. How big of a blow is this to the testing capacity, the future testing capacity of provinces?
Key was it could give you an answer within an hour. So, places like that are remote they don’t have to wait for the swabs to be traveled around and sent and come back three days later. You can get the answer within an hour. If you think about it, each machine will process about one per hour. So, 24 per day. It is not like the thousands and thousands that we’re hearing about that are being processed at the big lab. Does it help small communities and perhaps certain emergency situations where you need to know the answer within an hour? yes. But does it help – does it sort of cripple our system, no. Because we still have huge lab capacity in terms of processing these normal swabs that we’re doing.
Vassy:
and what about the speed – the sort of issue around approving these kinds of tests? we’ll be in this position when it comes to antibody tests, these are the tests to see if you’ve had the virus. That is currently undergoing an approval process as well with health Canada. What does it tell us about the speed at which these things are being approved and should we expect to be reasonable a few other sort of hiccups along the way?
Yeah. and I think because of this hiccup, this is a very simple thing. The test itself works perfectly fine. The cube can measure and find the virus. That is not a problem. The problem comes from the swab. This test was originally bill to look for DNA. like do you have the gene for alzheimer’s disease? that’s what the company was all about. For that swab, you only need to take a swab on the inside of your mouth and get some cells. Once you have cells, you can do the whole process on it. Their swab is for your mouth. Therefore, kit not fit all the way up into your nose and you have to go pretty high up in the nose. and so because of that, there are swabs that are not able to pick up everything. You can only swab the inside of your nose or mouth. Could there be false negatives? in other words, they say you don’t have the virus but that is because the swabs didn’t get up there. The device itself is fine. They just have to come up with another swab. The moment you do that, you have to show that that swab can collect samples and go through the testing again. So, we’re a little bit society backwards, but definitely fix tonight change the swab. and the reason why the situation happened is because everybody was in a rush to get the testing part right. They were getting that right and everybody forgot that we need to get a good sample. Therefore, fixing the samples what we need to do and then show that it works.
Vassy:
Just one more question about re-opening the xhis. Especially in Quebec where we see in the next week or so, kids start to head back to school. We’re still seeing the numbers there. You know, in the trim digits for the number of cases. What is your sense about the readiness of provinces to re-open?
Yeah. I’m hoping that the government is looking at where the numbers are going up. So let’s say the numbers were going up in long-term care. Let’s just say. Let’s say we open up other economy tas are not attached to long-term care or regions. Montreal proper, there is a lot of spaces there. Outside of montreal mark ib no cases or low cases. What I’m hoping is they’re opening up things in regions that don’t have increasing cases. Number two is that we have to keep monitoring and number three, we can’t give advice like you should be at 50% capacity. Because that is not what’s going to keep us safe. What is going to keep us safe is we talk about the physical distancing, so that I cannot blow the virus towards you. Either by talking to you or laughing at you. Basically we need to keep that. I think what we should be telling people is keep that distance. So, individually we can do that. But we can tell businesses if you are a restaurant, figure out how everybody can fit six feet apart and your servers can be two or three feet apart when they’re serving. I know there already line-ups like the grocery stores where we can have those markings. Those principles will keep the distances working well. and it will keep us safe. You have to make sure to keep that six feet in our mind always present.
Vassy:
Ok. Appreciate your insights, as always.
Thank you, Vassy.
Vassy:s the Prime Minister also did, as I mentioned, announced $240 million directed toward on-line services for both primary health care and mental health care. For that I want to bring in our next guest, dana lee bagley, a registered psychologist in halifax. Hi, there. Good to see you.
Hi. Thank you for having me.
Vassy:
I want to start with the idea of on-line services for mental health care. So many people having to stay home. How significant or important is it that they’re able to access those services through their computer?
Caller:
I think one of the good things that came about, and I wish I could have come about in a different way, but one of the things that came about is an increased focus on mental health and delivered without protecting our mental health. So, the physical distancing is absolutely necessary as we just hear. and it’s also really hard on mental health, right? these are not the things that we recommend for good mental health. I think it is especially important to be able to access professional services. So these are unprecedented times and that might also mean that we do things we wouldn’t normally do in itemingers of accessing professional mental health. Mental health’s translates very well on-line. You can do therapy quite well. There’s studies showing the effectiveness of that and we also need to make sure that the rural communities have access to the internet because those are exactly the communitis that we want to increase accessibility and often I don’t have stable internet to make use of these resources.
Vassy:
That is a really good point of discussion among parliamentarians and specifically the opposition parties, too. You run your own practice. What have you seen up close about the effects of this pandemic on Canadians’ mental health?
So, really it is the only thing we talk about in all of the sessions how to protect our mental health. How to stay stable. We are talking about trying to charge our batteries and do things that are deliberate about protecting our mental health. It is taking a toll. We’ve seen Stu’s showing that it is taking a toll and also that people are willing to continue doing it if that means keeping people safe. So having additional services that you can access and professional services that you can access to help us cope with that is really important.
Vassy:
Just a minute left. But My sense prior to this was that access to those services was already strained and already an issue far lot of Canadians. This is more money, but how big of an issue is that access?
So, I’ve seen people talk about. The first wave is COVID-19 deaths, the second wave is acute deaths like heart disease or heart attacks. The third is chronic disease management so people that didn’t get services. Fourth is mental health and it is the longest one. The one we have to deal with long past when the outbreak is done because there will be long-term consequences. Both for as the public as well as essential service workers and frontline providers. We need to be mindful of this for a very long time to come.
Vassy:
We sure will be. Thank you for sharing your expertise. Dana lee bagley, a registered psychologist in Halifax. We’re standing by in a minute’s time to take you back to parliament hill for a press conference from the two ministers in charge of procurement and Dr. Teresa tam, the chief public health officer. She surely will be asked about some of the questions around a pause in testing capacity or perhaps limits on testing capacity for provinces and what that means for their ability to open things up. Minister annand will talk about a national supply council. We know there are issues with the personal protective equipment, hand sanitizers, masks, that kind of thing. There have been issues. This council is developed to address all of that going forward and ramp up that supply as provincial economies open up. That is it for us here on CBC naous. WI will continue on CBC news network. Stay with us and join us there. I’m Vassy kapelos.
Let me start off on the procurement issue because it’sbeen with us for the last six weeks and I don’t think I’ve saw it as much about personal protective equipment or known as much about the supply of it. They have ramp ed up the capacity to meet that supply. The idea of what if this happens again or what kind of personal protective equipment is necessary to reopen our economy, even for the private sector, is one the feds are facing.
Reporter:
There’s a lot of conversations and questions are going to come out of this. We’ll see what the details are of the supply council but longerterm, this has laid very out before the country to see just how deficient is on personalequipment. It has changed with Canada goose and stanfield ramping up to makegowns, face shields and medicine building a mask manufacturing line here in Canada. We rely on foreign countries to deliver this stuff. When the world is competing for the same stuff at the same time to deal with the same problem, you have issues on cut-throatcompetition and issues aroundinferior quality. Some of the things Canada hasbeen able to secure have beenfound to be not of sufficientenough quality to be used in anacute care medical setting. We’re going to get an update anda path forward, it seems, on thesteps towards that domesticself-sufficiency. The Minister of buying andbuilding in terms of how this isgoing and they’re going to giveus a sense of what is going tohappen there. It has shown how vulnerable thehealth system and how we rely onchina, which is under themicroscope of anger andfrustration in a geopoliticalsense because of what it may ormay not have done in the earlystages.
Vassy:
That’s what I want to ask you about. We did see a number of questions directed to the prime minister today about a couple of reports coming out of the United States. The first, comes from secretary of state mike Pompey who did an interview on ABC which he said, I can tell you there’ssignificant amount of evidence this came from that lab inwuhan. Where this pandemic first started in china. He did not, of course, at this point say what the evidence was. He add the best experts, so far, seem to think it was man-made. That jumps off another reportthat talks about china, forexample, limiting exports assoon as they recognize it was acontagion in late december andearly January. To your point, we’re so reliantat this point, as far as thesupply chain goes, as being ableto get that personal protectiveequipment that those medicalsupplies from china. So these questions become evenmore important for the federalgovernment and the Prime Minister was asked, well, haveyou seen that evidence? he did not directly answer that.
Reporter:
He said – he is not drawing any firm conclusion son anything about the origins of the virus. The fox news report, there was are port in the daily telegraph citing an intelligence report pointing to this. Without independent confirmation from the Canadian government, without a statement from thecanadian government, I’m not sure what to say about that. a week ago, United States intelligence reports were telling us kimjong-un was dead and they say heis fine. Now he is attending events. Intelligence is not alwaysright. We’ve seen the United States secretary ofstate go to the united nationsand say there were weapons ofmass destruction in iraq andlook what happened there. China will have to answerquestions about what it did anddidn’t do in the early stages ofthis. Certainly, whether it came from a lab or a market, which seemsto be the dominant theory tothis point, is something thatthe Prime Minister says willneed to be sorted out andinvestigated through the initialhealth crisis in the country andaround the world. I don’t think there’s anyquestions on any world leader’smind that china was not at allcandid about the early stages ofthis and took steps to lookafter its interest in a way tocompromise everybody else. To ensure they had the medicalsupplies and capacity theyneeded to deal with the viruswhen it got to their country. The challenge in all of this, you still need the suppliesbecause no one is through thisyet and a lot of those suppliesare made in china. While the United States may havethe geopolitical hef to gotoe-to-toe middle power likecanada just can’t in terms ofrisking the anger of chineseregime and losing access to themasks and the gownses and thegloves and sanitizer it has madeover there.
Vassy:
That’s interesting to watch the Prime Minister and many who get these questions as they try to navigate, I guess, the response to that. I remember talking to health minutes pattyhajdu who wouldn’t say, forexample, that an investigation – there should bean investigation at the end of this all this. We hear the Prime Minister say those are questions that can be asked but we’ll do that later. As the United States and – you areright, there’s a disparity in our roles in the world, but as the United States continues to talk about this and continues to be more specific about the intelligence or if there is evidence the evidence that they see, imagine those questions will persist for the federal government and it’s going to get harder to keep saying, let’sjust wait until the this is allover.
Reporter:
We have to consider the American context that it is in the best interest of the trump administration in an election year to be talking about blame for the cause rather than blame for the response of the Americans. There’s a lot of criticism for the United States response and what happened in terms of their preparedness and what is happening and you can see in the protest in their state legislature and people going to the homes of state government officials demanding reopening. There’s a political desire to talk about other things in the United states right now. and china is one of those things that they want to talk about. It doesn’t takeaway the fact there needs to be an investigation to find out these answer they can learn lesson for the next time some sort of novel virus appears and threatens theworld’s health. Politics and the pandemic are mixing in a very significant way right now and we’ve always Giotto keep that in mind.
Vassy:
Let me swing back, David, as we wait for the minister and chief public-healthofficer, Dr. Theresa tam –never mind. They’re on the way. I think a lot of us are thinkingand talking about that. I believe they’re stepping up. We’re going to listen todr. Teresa tam.
Good afternoon, everyone. We’re starting by hearing fromdr. Tam and we’ll hear from the minister bairn by videoconference.
Good afternoon, everyone. Bonjour. I’ll start with the latest numbers on COVID-19 in Canada. There are now 57, 148 confirmedcases, including 3, 606 deaths. To date, labs across Canada have tested over 893, 000 people forcovid-19 with about 6.5% of these testings positive. There’s the part where we usually move on to a brief update on how we are continuing to slow down the epidemic and what is needed next for us to get down the curve cautiouslytogether. Instead, I want to pause here to reflect on the significance behind our daily numbers. Numbers that are impossible to fully encapsulate. Each one of the 57, 000 cases has been an illness striking fear and concern for each person, family, friends and community. Each death has been a tragedy and to this, each death ha soften meant a good-bye to lovedones. Not giving hugs and comfortingtouches. It’s in these tragic conditionsthat we are most thankful foreveryone on the front line ofthis crisis. Not only do we count on healthworkers on the frontlines tocomfort us when we are sick andscared, but they are there tooffer comforting words, andhealing touches. They reach out when we have toremain during illness, hospitalstays and last moments. They keep us informed as ourloved ones are being cared forand they share the sadness ofnews when illness outcomes canbring only tears. There is comfort in knowing howhealth workers, from those whosupport and maintain ourhospitals and care homes, tothose who deliver direct patientcare, have stepped in andstepped up to allow humanity toshine. From the cleaners who share aword of comfort as they go abouttheir duties and those who bringby meals, to a range of and givereassurance. We can know our loved ones arebeing provided care with humantouch and concern. As you suffer the loss of aloved one, they wait for you exwith you. and all Canadians are forsympathy as suffer the greatestloss of all during this crisis. Today, I offer these reflectionlcanadians whether they arehelping in a hospitals andlong-term care homes, providingessential services orvolunteering in our communitiesor continuing to do the verybest to stay home to save lives. Every life matters. Keep it up, Canada, we arestronger together. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Tam.
Bonjour.
This is Dr. Howard Njoo of this country following remarks from Dr. Teresa tam of Canada. Her remarks focused on providing some context to the numberswe’ve heard so far. We have some issues, technical issues with our translator so as soon as Dr. Njoo we will bring back that audio. We’ll have the translation for you as well. Dr. Tam, pointing out that as oftoday, 893, 000 tests have been conducted in this country with6.5% of them confirmed positive. That number has picked up over the past few weeks, the number of positive tests but that’santicipated as testing capacityincreases. She also spoke about the impact for the first time. She says she paused to talk about the impact behind the numbers and more specifically, at the number of people who have contracted this virus as well as passed away from it and the number of people then, who have to mourn the loss of their loved ones without being able, forexample, to hold the funeral. We’ve seen so many examples of that over the past six weeks. and the translation is back sowe’ll take a listen.
Or those who deliver direct patient care. Cleaners who share comfort as they go about their duties or those who bring by the day’smeals to a whole range of healthcare providers who hold atrial end hand and givereassurance. We can know our loved ones are being provided care with human touch and concern in our way. The loss of a loved one, they wait for you and with you and all Canadians offer sympathy as you suffer the greatest loss of all during this crisis. Today, as we offer thisreflections, I’m thanking allcanadians whether they are helping in a hospitals andlong-term care homes, providingessential services orvolunteering in our community orcontinuing to do their very bestto stay home to save lives. Because every life matters, sotoo does our every event toprevent the spread of COVID-19. Keep it up, Canada, we arestronger together. Thank you.
Now, we’ll listen to ministeranan.
Thank you so much, Dr. Tam and Dr. Njoo. I echo your appreciation for our front line healthcare workers. I too will begin by sending myheart-felt condolences to peoplewho have lost loved ones as wellas to the family and friendswith the loss of the six membersof the canadian armed forces wholost their lives serving ourcountry. As a fellow Nova Scotia an, letme say that we are all grievingwith you.
As in the rest of the world, most of our supplies continue coming from abroad. We are still facing logistical challenges because of the heightened global demand, but significant progress is beingmade.
They have helped us bring home supplies with flights coming in nearly everyday this past week. We have also engage ups to provide additional assistance with moving Poe out of shanghai. In a competitive environment, our dedicated team, on the ground in china, insures that supplies are coming into the warehouse and making their way onto the plane back to Canada.
Our objective is to put safe, reliable and effective equipment in the hands of our healthprofessionals. and we are taking all necessary measures for this to happen. We are remaining extremely vigilant when it comes to the quality of the products we aredistributing.
We are only dealing with companies that can meet the standards that we require. Nationally, Canadian companies are continuing to increase production and deliveries areunderway.
Based in Toronto, delivered their first shipment of ventilators to the federalgovernment. Our first shipments of face shields began to come in this week with more than 740, 000received to date. Half of which were produced herein Canada by companies likebauer and Toronto stamps. I’m happy to report we have signed new contracts for15.5 million face shields from sterling industries, affiliated with Honda and from Canada. As I mentioned last week, we managed to secure a shapementfrom china of vital chemical components required to produce the agent. This week I’m happy to announce we have finalized a new agreement with lumen ultra, adeading company in new Brunswick’s the corporation now has the components it needs to produce enough free-agent for 500, 000more tests per week. Domestic production right hereat home. I AM also delighted to announcethat we are now finding along-term agreement with mediconin Quebec. For the manufacture here incanada of 20 million n95 receip5respirator and masks for thenext 10 years. Starting this summer. This long-term procurement isfor essential products and forother things is part of our planto ensure that Canada isprepared now and in the futurein collaboration with ministerbaines. We have signed a new contractwith logistics uni core, amanufacturing company in st. John’s in Quebec. They are providing 11 millionmedical gowns. Logistic uni corp is one of the30, 000 corporations whichresponded to the all for actionthat was published on the buyand sell site where we areasking suppliers to help usfight COVID-19.
How companies like canadahave stepped up to meet the current challenges that we are facing together. Their ingenuity and tenacity will help us through thiscrisis. Last week, we launched a running report of our procurement only our website. Which was updated on Friday. The figures are showing that we have made progress in ordering and obtaining supplies from the country and abroad. But we will not slow down ourefforts. In addition to our – we will not give up. We are not letting up.
We are preparing for a new wave of infection or a sudden resurgence at any given time, which would renew the immediate need for further orders of critical supplies. That is why I have formed acovid-19 supply council by brings together a diverse group of leaders from the canadianchamber of commerce to the red cross to provide advice on building innovative and agile supply chains from start tofinish. This council is about bringing together diverse industries and experiences in order to best serve Canadians through the next phases of this crisis. The council compliments My work with procurement ministers from provinces and territories right across the country. As an example of ourcollaboration, when we spoke onfriday, My counterpart innunavut, raised an urgent –with the department of nationaldefence, we were able to ens urea shipment of swabs was sent on its way to Nunavut within 24hours. Cooperation has proven to beinvaluable, time and time again, throughout this crisis. Together, we remain vigilant in our efforts to secure the vital supplies that will keepcanadians safe today, tomorrow, and in the months ahead. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Minister, we’regoing to hear from the minister of innovation science andindustry.
Thank you, very much, anitaand thank you very much, Carl. Six weeks ago, we called oncanada’s investment community to help me with the critical need for personal health equipment and health supplies. We also reached out to the wealth of Canadian researchinstitutions, universities, and sciences to mobilize science in the fight against COVID-19. Since then, two things have stood out for me. First, the fear which canadiancompanies and researchers all across the country have stepped up and offered their help to do whatever they can to assist the fellow Canadians in the crisis. Secondly, the diverse ways thatcanadian innovation has been deployed to address the challenges we’re facing. Neither are surprising to me andi’m proud of the work being done by our world-class industrial inthe community.
More than 6, 000 canadiancooperations have offered up their expertise and capacities. We have also mobilized a great number of researchers and scientists who are researching solutions to this unprecedentedchallenge.
The most recent progress coming from these efforts. First, I’m pleased to announce the contribution of more than$175 million to the buy logics, a bio tech company in Vancouver, they were the first in northamerica to receive a sample. and just a few short weeks, they have screened 6 million cell sand have identified over 500human antibodies. They’re working on identifying which of those 500 antibodies cannot only block the COVID-19but can be made into a drug totreat the virus. It’s currently working withpartners to select antibodiesthat are highly potent, broadlyneutralizing and capable oflarge-scale manufacturing. Antibodies found during theresearch may also be used tocreate tests for COVID-19 andthe company is working withseveral local organizations tosupport the development of newdiagnostics and monitoring thedisease. Human critical trials areexpected to begin in the summer. Over the long run, they willhave antibodies so our countryis prepared to respond to futurepandemics. Let me turn now to updates ontest kits and face shields. We know that we will need alarge number of reliable andaccessible tests if we are toreopen the economy safely andresponsibly. That is why we just signedletters of intent. Diagnostic bio Canada. These companies were selected toaccelerate a process that sawover 100 submissions. Similar to what we did withventilators, and the nationalresearch council of Canada andthe panel of external expertsidentified the most promisingshort-term canadianmanufacturing options fortesting. The supercluster is alsosupporting other aspects oft. P.e. Manufacturing. Eight projects have already beenapproved.
It has contracted three new projects focused by medical faceshields. These projects are bringing together manufacturing in 3-dprinting companies and it will result in hundreds of thousands of face shields being produced daily by June first.
To conclude, I would like to state that this super cluster ismodellizing its members and has approved eight new projects to fight against COVID-19.
Innovation is central of our mobilization efforts and working with the research experts, we continue in our mission of supporting our healthcare workers and ensuring the safety of Canadians as we navigate thispandemic. Together, we will win thisfight. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Minister Bains. We’ll start with threequestions. One question, one follow-up andwe’ll go to the room.
Thank you. Please press star 1 at this time if you have a question. I’m sorry I think maybe you havesome technical issues. I can hardly hear clearly theministers so I’m hoping that dryquestion. What happened exactly with thisspartan cube test, how come itwas three weeks ago, good to goand now it’s not?
So, I think it wasapril 11th when health canadaauthorized spartan, the test kit in the interim order of path way this is part of acceleration of access to our innovativetesting. Built into that process is actually clinical validation of the device and its systems. It was the national microbiology lab from the public-healthagency who collaborated withclinical sites in threeprovinces to actually use thisdevice and system to takesamples from actual patients. While the spartan system or thedevice performed very well in alab setting and along thespecifications that themanufacturer had provided, itwas in the real life setting inthe clinical setting where itdidn’t perform well. Right now, it appears it may berelated to the pro priority swabthat goes with the system. So, I think what health canadais doing is to amend theauthorized intended use forresearch use only so that moreclinical validations can be donewhen the manufacturer adjustsits system. I actually think this is areally – it really highlightsthe importance of the kind ofquality assurance we’re put togo our new tests and that reallyhas been no use of this test kitin a way that would haveimpacted patient dying know tickbecause do you this in thecontext of a actual clinicaltrial evaluation.
Ok. and I understand when you talk about the swab, we’re talking about the thing that actually gets the sample, I guess and if not please correct me. We were test Ing 23, 000 a day and you were hoping for almost three times as much, 60, 000. How does this spartan tube setback impact this objective?
It actually doesn’t impact it because the provincial territorial targets, collectively, of the 60, 000 is just on the existing tests within the public-health labsand then we would add on top ofthat any point of care testingthat comes on board. Some of which are already inuse, that’s just the geneexperts, that is, for example, also being used in Nunavut, forexample. So some of the points of care is in addition to that initialprovincial territorial capacitytarget of 60, 000 and I do knowthat people, the provinces areramping up the testing and we’llsee what happens in the nextseven days as they ramp up somemore. I know that in the last 24hours, we actually did over31, 000 tests, thank you. The next question is from leefrom the canadian press. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. This question is for Dr. Tam. a number of provinces will take the next steps tomorrow towardsreopening. What will you and otherpublic-health officials watchfor, especially in Quebec where1, 000 cases were reportedyesterday. Does the spartan recall or theissues have that have beenhighlighted there, have anyimpact what you are seeing interms of – or what we mightexpect in terms of long-term orreopening up?
Well, I think both of these provinces have plans in place to escalate the testing and the target of 60, 000 doesn’t include any additional of those new tests like point of care. So, this is because we’relooking at so many different streams of new tests coming onboard, they’ll have to re adjust the time lines of perhaps when they would have expected the spartan system to be on board but this is the most prude course of action because you don’t want a actual system out there that isn’t picking up the cases as it should. I think that is actually are ally good validation approach. In terms of, of course, as you heard from chief medical officers of both of those provinces and across thecountry, there’s no exact right pathway down this slope and into the new realities of living withcovid-19. We all know that it has to be cautious and we have to actually look at what happens. Some of the criteria is pub accomplished looking at cases coming down so if you see cases coming back up again, you have to re-evaluate what is going on. Of course, one of the criticalaspects is your healthcarecapacity and your icu capacityso making sure they’re trackingall of those parameters as theygo about these baby steps andcautious path towards this newrea lot of living with COVID-19. Everyone will be watching verycarefully has to what happens to the activities and I know thatprovinces are trying to separateout the actual clusters withincertain settings like long-termcare from what might be actuallycommunity transmission sothey’ll try to look at theepidemiology from thatperspective as well.
Follow-up.
The number of new cases that were reported in Quebec yet, do you think it’s appropriate for this province to move ahead on its plans to reopen?
It’s up to the province ofquebec to look at that situation and Quebec is a big province and it may not be the same even within the actual province itself so I’m certain that the doctor and the quebecpublic-health system willmonitor this in all differentaspects of the province and theymay not do things at the sametime for different areas ofquebec as well. The details are within thepurview of the province.
Thank you, next question, please.
Thank you.
My question –
Caller:
Do we have enough test because you talk about a 60, 000target and we are reaching30, 000. Some provinces will be reopening soon and that is before we are able to carry out enoughscreenings.
This is Dr. Njoo here. Thank you for your question. It’s always a concern for all provinces and territories to have the capacity to screen people within theiradministration. The capacity has increasedsignificantly. The provinces and territories are also increasing capacities. As we’ve said before. There’s good capacity throughout country to take care of diagnostic screening based on the tests. Now, we are also introducing other tools like testing at service points something is happening now with spartan andit’s something we need to manage and resolve but ultimately we have the capacity. It’s up to the provinces to make adjustments when necessary. and they may also need to loosen up their public servicemeasures. Should I repeat in English, is that Ok.
We’re saying, yes, at the present time the province andterritories, their capacity for lab testing, which is key, willcontinue. They’ve taken steps to increase their lab capacity and that continues to this day andcertainly, within each province and territory, they’re making sure that as they may be start to begin to reaction certainpublic-health measures thatcapacity to rapidly detect casesis there. Right now the capacity is basedon the molecular test and itwill be the gold standard fornow but certainly, province andterritories as well as federalgovernment we’re looking atother types of technology tobring more tools available fortesting individuals and we’vejust talked about what we callpoint of care testing and wehope in the coming days andweeks make the adjustments inthe clinical sense.
Thank you, doctor.
Follow-up question – theclarification. There’s something I do notunderstand do we have enough fortesting, we’re not just doingenough testing or we don’t haveenough. We’re doing 30, 000 and thetarget is 60, 000 and maybeanother one understand tagenough testing is being done toopen the economy where as theeconomy is going to be openingsomewhere. I will answer and it’s difficultbecause we can’t really give youspecific figures it all dependson the demand. If people fall sick, we need tofind out if we have diagnostictesting. It’s not just a matter oftesting everyone. We already know that it’s veryimportant to test someone at theright time. If we screen someone who is notill, there is a danger of havinga false negative so it alldepends on demand. What is happening now within thepopulation with the spread ofthe virus. Well, we have the capacity inthe country but not allprovinces and territories andit’s something we need tofollow-up closely because if westart relaxing somepublic-health measures, we needa system and it’s creatingsystem to properly, rapidlydetect the virus if there is asurge in cases, that is reallythe issue. The issue is not the exactfigures or the available test.
Thank you, Dr. To be. I’ll turn to the room. Starting with Mary Walsh from”the globe and mail.”
We’re having trouble hearing you so I hope this will work. I’m just wondering if you can tell me exactly what gap is currently in the supply ofP.P.E. That you are hoping thiscouncil will fill? what specifically is missingfrom the compliment this willnow help do?
Thank you, I hope you can hear me now. is it any better? the supply council is not meant to fill a particular gap in the supply chain per SE but the goal in establishing the supply council is to provide another lens into the point-to-pointprocurements we’re doing fromstart to finish, frommanufacturer to a arrival orproduction in Canada, what is itthat we can be doing differentlyto ensure that we have properand effective and efficientprocurements within ourgovernment and across thecountry. So the idea is that it is addingto our existing processes bydrawing on the expertise ofmultiple individuals from adiverse set of sectors so thatwe can ensure that we arethinking about all the necessarythings that we need to bethinking about in procurement. So for example, in terms ofdistribution, we have much tolearn in terms of diversecommunities. Should we be adoptingalternative and additionalprocesses to ensure that we canreach vulnerable populations andpart of our conversation withthe supply council will revolvearound Canada’s incrediblediversity and how we can dobetter in terms of ourprocurement to ensure thateveryone has the supplies thatare necessary across thiscountry.
What is your – what are thegovernment’s forecast of how much P.P.E. We will need eitherper number in population or perweek or a mix of those when wereopen? how much more P.P.E. Will we need when we’re all trying to get back to work?
It’s definitely true that, across the country, where youare, people are talking about personal protective equipment and the incredible needs that we are for seeing. Let me be clear, our firstpriority, as the federal government at the opportunity Ce’s to procure P.P.E. For ourfront line healthcare workers. That’s what we’re doingeverything single day and we’reprocuring from internationalsources and as Minister bainsand I have been working on hard, domestic retooling is part ofthat equation. Diversifying supply chains. In terms of what is going to beneeded for ppe, this is anongoing conversation that I havebeen having with My provincialand territorial counterparts andthat we are going to becontinuing to have as we gothrough the next phases of thepandemic. I will say that from aprocurement perspective, we areplanning for a short andlong-term. We are planning for this phase as well as potential additional searches in the pandemic so that we can be prepared for alleventualities. This is procurement like it’snever been done before for that very reason. We need to be planning for the short and the long-term and alleventualities.
Thank you, Minister.
Caller:
Can you tell me the impact of the spartan setbackis? is it province and territories that ordered these test kits. You said they talked about ramping up quickly? what impact does this have?
This is in addition to the targeted around 60, 000 so westill, even within that scope got another halfway to go. If you think about we’re doing30, 000 a day since yesterday, there’s still ROM for them to continue to ramp up the testingapproaches. So, then the point of careactually, the KIA justment and plans will be for the rural and remote communities. The concept of using these mere patient tests so we can render these communities more independent of transportation. So any kind of delays might in fact impact on the fact that we need to continue to transportspecimens, for example, that would have been dealt withearlier. We are looking at other supplies of the point of care so thisisn’t the on one. I think it’s, again, a dynamicprocess. There are suppliers that are ab it more established, if youlike, but when we look at innovation space we know the pathway of innovation will have some bumps and I think this is one of those bumps. It only forms one part of the strategy so I think we will continue to look for other solutions to fill in those gaps. From My perspective the impact is more on the timeliness for the remote testing time.
Caller:
How many province sand territories ordered these spartan kits and how many are we talking about are held back because of the setback? thousands and millions?
We might have to get back to the numbers because I don’t havethem. I just know that it was three provinces that helped with the clinical trials which we were involved in and I think that there were 5, 500 test kits assort of part of thatdistribution. Beyond that, I don’t know that it was any distribution and idon’t know how much it would have been.
Caller:
It’s important not to refer to what is happening with this spartan test kit as arecall. This is part of the process of spartan being ramp ed up. We’re not expecting them to be ready in this moment in anycase. In My view, the issues that you are highlighting aren’t arecall, aren’t detective product at all. The public-health lab said theywill be used in researchsettings and spartan willcontinue to produce and reviewand revise the technology thatit is producing for the rapidtest kits and then, as thetesting warrants, they will be able to be used across thecountry. Again, this is part of theprocess of producing newtechnology, of producingsomething that is going to bevery important but is justgetting retooled and ramped upat the current time.
Caller:
My first question goes to Dr. Tam, the Prime Minister today when asked about the economy’s reopening and talked about how there is different realities and eachprovince, but we do know that the virus doesn’t know anyborders, and we’ve been told many times. That would apply here in Canada’s well. So, as the various province reopens at different times, are you going to recommend that enter provincial travel remain completely or become completely shutdown to make sure that different pockets don’t pop up in different areas?
We have to share information in each jurisdiction and the enter provincial is done among each one. Every province will be watching all the other provinces in terms of where their stance is. For provinces that have very minimal healthcare capacity they will be careful and they’restill going to be of course looking at the 14-day isolation periods for anyone coming inside of the territory and I think some of that will continue as we see what happens as people gingerly go through the nextstage. So absolutely. I think people will be watching but the issue of whatpublic-health systems might dowithin the provinces, within thejurisdiction, of course, from afederal and just maintainingservices through interprovincialtransport in order to maintainthe essential supplies thatstill have to occur. So that will continue again.
I will add to that if it’sthe provincial authorities and territorial authorities have the best of a pulse of what is actually happening in their ownjurisdictions. The issue of travel is not between provinces but even within provinces as we know even in the province of Quebec, thehotspot is Montreal and other parts of the situation isdifferent. At one point, they had restrictions in terms of travel within the province. The principle they’re always looking at including the federallevel, is maintaining physical distancing and whatever measure scan be brought to bear to reinforce that, that’s whatthey’ll continue to do.
We talk about businesses reopening and knowing there’s an adequate amount of P.P.E. Andmasks, and other equipment tomake sure stop the spread, aspart of today’s announcement, will equipment be goingdirectionally to businesses orhealthcare workers, where weknow there are issues in thosetypes of institutions? will there be an allocation arbreakdown of who is getting thisP.P.E.?
I think the health-caresystem remains a priority sothere’s an existing and theprovince and territories to lookat with needs and allocation andit will be dynamic and thecritical aspect of the nextstage is to ask the non urgenthealth services to come back andlook at those requirements. Also that, is done through theprovincial system and also, making sure they are long-termcare and publicly funded butthat system needs to be able toactually provide the necessaryP.P.E. Those coordination discussionsare definitely happening at theministerial level to make surethe health systems can re adjustgoing forward and I think interms of essential services, youknow, there’s on goingdiscussions but the key is thatany business trying to open mustalign with public-healthinstruction and you have to lookat the plan for how they reopenand half of them looked at by the actual public-healthauthorities and that is the mostimportant thing because if youhave the specks of the twometres or barriers orengineering criteria thebusinesses know how that worksthe most in order for them tolook forward to plan to reopenso there’s a lot of work and iknow in that space and a lot ofguidance for the differentsectors within the jurisdictionsas well. That’s really quite active rightnow and we Right get a littlebit more of an idea under whichcircumstances are people are notable to maintain the two-metredistance and that will give us abetter idea of what that supplyrequirement might look like.
Thank you, I think we have one more question.
Thank you, the next question is from Savannah odd from newbrunswick news. Go ahead.
Caller:
My question is for minister bain. We seen an investment in primary care and what is being done to improve reliable internet access for rural Canadians so that they current left out of thisinvestment?
Thank you, very much for thatquestion. I’m glad you raised this issue. High-speed internet connectivityis no longer a luxury, it’sessential. Our government recognizes thatwe would deal device and we needinvestments to the which help900 communities receive highspeed connectivity and weunveiled, in our last budget, auniversal broadband initiativeworth $1.7 billion and mycolleague is responsible forconnectivity in that programmeand she’ll be working veryaggressively to move that agendaforward because we realise thatthe four and and this is apriority for our government.
Follow-up.
Yes, so, for Minister, as we see provinces move faster towards recovery or in later stages where they’re starting toreopen, I guess before someothers, will P.P.E. Distributionbe effected by that so if aprovince is, I guess, furtheralong into a recovery phase, does that factor into how P.P.E. is distributed. I know it currently isper-capita with some wiggle roombased on emergency. Could you just elaborate onwhether it’s part of it.
Can you go back to say that the government is based on are quest that has come from the provinces and territories for purchases that they require forefront line healthcareworkers. and so as I said, that is the priority at current time. In terms of P.P.E. That would begenerally available it’s ongoing discussion and I’ve hadprocess tive discussions witharound the procurement tablethat I have struck with thevarious ministers from thoseprovinces. I will say that there is muchwork to be done on essentialservices and P.P.E. Foressential services and and thefederal is not the onlypurchaser of P.P.E. In thecountry. Hospitals are procuring P.P.E., and healthcare centersthemselves are procuring P.P.E. So this is an ongoingconversation. It’s important to remember thatthere are a number of and theglobal environment is incrediblystrained. The demand is high and andtaking an approach to todetermine the best way forwardon these important questions.
Thank you, Minister. this is the end of today’s pressconference. Thank you.
Vassy:
Those are federal ministers navdeep Bains andDr. Howard Njoo and talking about testing capacity in thiscountry, specifically Dr. Tam says while we set at 23, 000tests a day right now, they’rehoping to bring it up to 60, 000. I want to bring in davidcochrane, we have a minute and half to debrief on what wassaid. Let me get you on spartantesting, because that’s whatwe’ve been talking about allday. They did specifically address what impact the impediment has going forward.
The spartan test cube say game changer when it was first announced last month because it could give you a result within an hour and you could do it port at bleed. The kit tests properly but the problems is the swabs don’tcollect the samples to the standard that they want for this to be reliable part of Canada’stesting regime. It’s been sent back for some tweaks and working at spartan bio science and go through the approval process again. There’s confidence this is solvable problem and this will come backout. The down side of this is that it limits their ability to brodentesting in rural and remote places or do instant tests. The lab capacity of the countryuneffected by this. This is not a drop in testingcapacity. It’s just a slow down in the ability to accelerate and expandit.
Vassy:
We’re done. Thank you, David. Appreciate all your insights this afternoon. David Cochrane, that does it for our coverage here, I’m vassykapelos, I’ll turn it over tomichael serapio who are will continue our coverage on CBC News network. Have a great day.
Prime Minister JustinTrudeau:
We’re being as nimble as we can to respond to what isworking, to what perhaps isn’tworking.