Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, speaks during a press conference on Parliament Hill during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. Tam says a COVID-19 outbreak gripping the northern Saskatchewan community of La Loche is an area of concern.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, says there are about a dozen potential vaccines that officials are hoping will prevent COVID-19, though none is more promising than the others.
A vaccine has been seen as critical for returning to pre-pandemic normal, with researchers in Canada and around the world scrambling to develop one as quickly as possible.
Even as that work is going on, Tam says officials are also looking at how a vaccine will be rolled out to people if and when one is discovered.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu says the government is also looking at ways to ensure development and production of a COVID-19 vaccine does not take away from work on the annual flu vaccines that many Canadians get every year.