On May 21st, 2020, the Ford Government announces it’s the first phase of research projects to fight COVID-19.
These research projects are apart of the $20 million Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund, which is set to work on things like vaccine treatment, rapid testing, diagnostics, drug trials and development, and social sciences.
According to a news release, Ontario is also leading the country with 22 clinical trials currently operating to investigate COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, with eleven of these trials been given the green light by Health Canada to “advance potential vaccines and therapeutics”
The government will be funding 15 proposal projects that were submitted, including from Western University’s proposal and other universities across the province.
“Ontario is leading the nation in the battle to defeat this deadly virus. We have some of the most incredible researchers and innovators anywhere in the world right here in our province,” Premier Doug Ford said during his daily briefing. “There’s no reason why a new rapid testing method, vaccine or treatment can’t be found right here in Ontario”.
This comes after the province failed to meet it’s testing target for the fourth straight day. The province reported that only 10,506 were tested, failing to meet the goal of 16,000 per day.
“We can’t just be testing people with symptoms, we have to start going to the broader public,” Ford said. “How do we know how many asymptomatic people are out there right now?”
As of Thursday, there were 413 new cases of COVID-19 reported, meaning as of Thursday afternoon, Ontario has reported 24,187 cases of COVID-19, with about 1,993 deaths.
