Health committee  Where we can, of course, we'll continue to purchase it, but where we're looking at an additional surge, we are looking at some domestic capacity.

Health committee  It is for some components of this.

Health committee  There are different components. Obviously, you have to take a swab, so there's a kit.

Health committee  There are different options, which is why creating that logistics group allows us to explore all options. Of course, the whole world wants all these things.

Health committee  There are needs globally and some of these are global supply chains. We're looking at all of those, but we're also looking at the possibility of some domestic capacity as well. We've pulled a few departments together to see if there's someone else in Canada who isn't really making it now—

Health committee  We have a federal-provincial-territorial network called the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network. I always say that the capacity changes rapidly on an ongoing basis as we begin to ramp up that capacity. Obviously when we first started, it was an entirely new test. You had to test those few cases in the Winnipeg National Microbiology Lab.

Health committee  That's also in the area of jurisdiction of the provinces and territories. What I have been able to gather is that right now—

Health committee  We have the capacity to do at least 2,400 a day. Ramping up, the estimate is that we can go to 16,000 a day.

Health committee  We plan for a range of scenarios. Planning for a worse case than you might see is probably a prudent measure. Some of the scenarios look at the facts as we know them, which is the proportion of people who are mildly ill, which is 80%, followed by a 14% or 15% group who's going to be ill enough to go into the hospital, followed by a smaller group, like 6%, who demand ICU care.

Health committee  I think this virus is a very interesting virus. It's a bit unusual in that it can spread better than SARS and the MERS coronavirus. It is the first coronavirus to cause a pandemic. It is probably a virus that has hit the sweet spot. It is not completely lethal, so there are people with mild illnesses and a range of clinical symptoms who can transmit the virus, for instance.

Health committee  I think that in the public health domain we certainly have to remember that our borders are not a solid wall, as was just said. They're but one layer of protection, and it is never a perfect layer. The greater the number of countries affected, you can imagine that trying to screen people at the borders becomes a much more ineffective means of addressing the coronavirus outbreak.

Health committee  The WHO did call this a pandemic today, but the key message is that all countries can still change the course of this pandemic by doing a number of things. I will go through them very quickly, but I believe we're already doing them. First of all, they are asking countries to be prepared and ready, and we have been preparing since the beginning of this.

Health committee  I co-chair the special advisory committee with the provinces and territories, and underneath is a logistics advisory committee. That committee has been gathering information from all jurisdictions, but it is up to each of the provinces and territories to define what they have and what their gaps and needs are.

Health committee  That's an ongoing assessment. This type of purchasing is not just one time. I think that with the evolution of the needs, some of the jurisdictions might say that they need some more of another thing. We're there to prepare, to be ready and to help with that purchase.

Health committee  The international construct is that the Chinese authorities have been providing data, and in quite a lot of detail, to—