Government of Canada invests $53 million to address COVID-19 virus variants of concern

To help detect and track new variants of concern in Canada, the Government of Canada developed a monitoring program with provinces and territories to identify new COVID-19 virus variants in Canada, such as the ones originating in the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and Brazil (P.1). Today, the Government of Canada is increasing our capacity to find and track these variants in Canada by investing $53 million in an integrated Variants of Concern Strategy, which will rapidly scale up our surveillance, sequencing and research efforts.