BREAKING: Trudeau announces $1.1 BILLION fund for vaccines research, trials, immunity research

Justin Trudeau addressed media on Thursday, starting by wishing Muslim Canadians a happy end of Ramadan, and again extending condolences to those in Nova Scotia who had lost loved ones.

Trudeau went on to provide updates on the pandemic. "What we're doing is working," said Trudeau of the COVID-19 figures. "We need medium-term and long-term solutions."

Trudeau then announced another step, putting in place an additional $1.1 billion dollar national research strategy to address COVID-19.

The funding will support vaccine research, clinical trials, and the expansion of testing.

Roughly $115 million will go into vaccine research being developed across Canada. This is in addition to previous vaccine funding, Trudeau continued, saying $662 million will also go into clinical trials across Canada.

"These drugs will take months to develop, test, fabricate, and roll out," said Trudeau.

To better understand immunity to the virus, $350 million will also go into the expansion of coronavirus testing and modelling, including the COVID-19 community task force, which will be lead by Canada's top medical staff.

"Canada's best and brightest will be working on [blood testing] to track and understand immunity to COVID-19," said Trudeau.

Trudeau said that over two years, more than two million Canadians will be tested, which will help medical authorities better understand how the virus spread, and to help the government in deciding what policy is put in place.

"Testing is key," said Trudeau, announcing that Canada has reached 20,000 tests daily.

"It's working, and we can't afford to waste this progress," said Trudeau.

Long term care facilities

Trudeau announced that military aid requests in Ontario and Quebec would be answered, saying that the federal government will help in the short term to ensure the provinces have what they need.

"In Canada, we shouldn't have soldiers taking care of seniors," said Trudeau.