That's excellent. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the committee for inviting me here today. As do my colleagues, I fully appreciate the urgency of the meeting.
Having joined the department only a week ago, I'd like to start by saying I'm very proud to lead a very talented group of public servants who have been crucial to fighting COVID-19.
Since the very beginning, Public Services and Procurement has been working tirelessly to obtain the equipment and the supplies required to protect the health and safety of Canadians. Our goal is to meet the needs established by the Public Health Agency of Canada as they work with the provinces and territories to support Canadians and our health care professionals on the front lines.
Early on, our department focused on buying urgently needed PPE in what proved to be a very competitive global market with huge international demand for a finite supply of goods, most of which were being made overseas. More and more, as domestic capacity for producing PPE was stood up, we also tapped into several Canadian manufacturers. To date, PSPC has now procured some 2.7 billion pieces of equipment with a substantial amount of that being made right here in Canada. For example, we have a 10-year contract with Medicom out of Montreal to supply N95 surgical masks, and we have a contract with 3M based in Brockville for 25 million N95s annually through to 2026. Both domestic manufacturers are now providing Canada with a steady supply of masks.
When it comes to vaccines, our approach has been deliberate and comprehensive. The department led negotiations for the establishment of a robust vaccine portfolio, which has put Canada in a very fortunate position. Whether it be a first or second dose, a pediatric dose or a booster, we now have access to more than enough vaccines for every eligible Canadian, and we have contracts in place with our vaccine suppliers that will ensure a steady flow of doses into the country for years to come.
However, we know that other tools, such as rapid tests, are now more important than ever, particularly with the highly contagious omicron variant. PSPC currently has 14 agreements in place with suppliers for more than 430,000,000 rapid tests that have been secured to date. This month alone these agreements are enabling our colleagues at the Public Health Agency to distribute 140,000,000 rapid tests to provinces and territories to meet these urgent needs. We are planning for shipments to continue steadily coming into Canada over the coming months, but given the global demand, there will be challenges, and that's why we are in constant contact with suppliers.
On border testing, we've put in place new contracts to increase the capacity to collect and process tests for national travellers. These contracts are structured to allow flexibility to ensure that we can adapt to any future border-testing requirements.
We are also ensuring that Canada has access to effective treatments that can reduce the severity of COVID-19. Our department has established agreements for seven different kinds of therapeutics, and we continue to aggressively pursue additional agreements. Just yesterday, immediately following Health Canada authorization, the government announced that we have already received our first shipment of more than 30,000 treatment courses with another 120,000 coming before the end of March. In total, we have an initial order of one million treatment courses of Paxlovid secured under contract, and delivery schedules for those remaining courses are being finalized as we speak.
Mr. Chair, those are just a few examples of the department's recent works to support the pandemic response. I look forward to continuing to support the government's efforts on this front and to answering any questions.
Merci beaucoup.