Thank you.
As my colleague mentioned, I will be talking to you about sequencing, surveillance and vaccines.
Canada has a federal, provincial and territorial approach to surveillance. This involves front-line healthcare settings and laboratories across the country. Our approach has effectively equipped us to detect respiratory diseases, including COVID-19.
We have worked with the provinces and territories and other stakeholders to accelerate diagnostic testing capacity in order to detect cases of COVID-19 and its variants more quickly.
The National Microbiology Laboratory monitors Canadian cases of COVID-19 with the provinces and territories through ongoing analysis of genomic databases in Canada.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research have been working with Genome Canada, and provincial and territorial partners, on sequencing.
Sequencing is used to determine the RNA of the virus in order to help identify different variants. This data is an essential tool to track how the virus is both changing and spreading. This method can help us quickly detect potentially emerging variants of concern.
In April 2020, the Government of Canada committed $40 million to support the creation of the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network, or CanCOGeN. This investment will enable sequencing efforts across the country that will help us understand the genetic variations of the virus as it evolves.
These early investments have helped put Canada in a leadership position so that we can rapidly detect and respond to the variants of concern that have emerged and are spreading around the world. The National Microbiology Laboratory and the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network have worked with federal, provincial and academic scientists, epidemiologists and infectious diseases clinicians to establish priorities for sequencing.
These activities target the identification of existing variants of concern through the regular sampling of positive cases. These include, but are not limited to, suspected cases of reinfection and vaccine failure. Sequencing is also targeting high-risk scenarios that may signal the presence of potential new variants of concern. Canada sequences more than 5% of the positive caseload in the country, a rate on par with most top surveillance programs in other countries. Our objectives are to increase our sequencing to 10% and to decrease turnaround times.
The National Microbiology Laboratory is working with provincial partners to ramp up screening positive cases of known variants of concern. Screening capacity is increasing in many provinces.
At the same time, the Public Health Agency of Canada is tracking daily counts of variants of concern across Canada. It has also worked with provincial and territorial partners to reach agreements to track cases that have been identified as variants of concern. This agreement includes sharing epidemiological information so that we can do a comparative analysis of concern cases versus cases where the variants are not of concern. This analysis will allow us to detect characteristics that might enhance our understanding of how public health measures need to be adapted to a variant of concern.
To further support our efforts, the government is investing $53 million in an integrated Variants of Concern Strategy. The investment will increase our capacity to find and track variants of concern in Canada. It will also help to rapidly scale up surveillance, sequencing and research efforts to inform the public health response.
This national strategy brings together public health and genomic sequencing, along with epidemiology, immunology, virology and mathematical modelling. Through this partnership, we are leveraging existing expertise and laboratories to drive public health investigations and take public health action rapidly.
To implement the strategy, the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory is providing $20 million. CanCOGeN is providing $8 million to increase genomic sequencing and real-time data-sharing capacity. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research are providing up to $25 million to scale up Canadian research to increase our understanding of emerging variants. This will help provide decision-makers with rapid guidance for drug therapy, vaccine effectiveness and other public health strategies.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is responsible for supporting and acting on the recommendations of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force. Based on the expert recommendations of the task force, clinical information, and authorizations by Health Canada, the Agency has worked with Public Services and Procurement Canada and other federal departments to develop an evidence-informed vaccination strategy. This strategy focuses on securing a diverse portfolio of leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
The portfolio of candidates serves to provide every person in Canada with access to safe and effective vaccines as soon as they are available.
Canada was an early investor in COVID-19 vaccine technology, and has advance purchase agreements with seven leading vaccine manufacturers. To date, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been authorized by Health Canada. Three others, AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax, have submissions with Health Canada for regulatory authorization. Others are progressing well through clinical trials. Canada's approach to its vaccine strategy was designed to take into account the uncertainties and many risks inherent in global vaccine supply chains. It also considered the evolving nature of the virus and its impacts on vaccines.
The current global emergence of variants of concern has reinforced the value of having a diversified portfolio of vaccines. Canada is monitoring evidence of the impact that variants of concern have on the effectiveness of the vaccines in our portfolio.
The Public Health Agency of Canada strongly supports evidence-based decision-making and continues to work closely with its partners to monitor the evidence on all fronts. And we continue to adjust our efforts when necessary.
The agency is working with the provinces and territories, international partners, the scientific community and health systems to collect evidence on the variants. This will help us determine how they are impacting on Canada's immunization efforts, as well as those of other countries.
At the same time, the agency is working with its federal partners to engage vaccine developers on on how their vaccines will protect against variants, including the potential need for booster doses.
In our current portfolio, we have secured enough vaccines for everyone in Canada to have access to an authorized vaccine by September. We are confident in our vaccine portfolio but we recognize that it is not static. As we learn more, we will adjust the strategy to ensure that it continues to be effective.
We are actively exploring all options that can help us strengthen our vaccine portfolio and support our immediate and longer-term needs. This includes making sure that all Canadians have access to boosters, if they are required.
To say this last year has been a difficult one is an understatement. But we have come a long way. We have seen the positive effect of the public health measures we have been practicing. They are effective and they help to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including its variants of concern.
Now is not the time to give up. We've come too far for that. Until we are all vaccinated, it is more important than ever that we maintain the practices that have brought us this far.
Thank you for your attention.