Trudeau calls first ministers meeting on COVID-19, promises better data soon

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will soon be able to give Canadians a better sense of the impact COVID-19 is going to have on this country but he isn't able to do it yet.

As countries like New Zealand and the United States project the numbers of people in their countries who might die from COVID-19, Canada has thus far refused to release any of the modelling done with the data here.

Trudeau says he knows Canadians want to be able to plan and see what is working and what is not and promises that information will be ready soon.

Trudeau says he is chairing a first-ministers meeting with premiers tonight, to co-ordinate the national response to COVID-19.

That includes sharing data across jurisdictions that will give Canadians a better sense of the toll the virus is expected to take and how long the lockdown measures may last.

Trudeau says there are a range of scenarios but just sharing them without a better analysis of the data now becoming available to public health experts will not do much good.