Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is acknowledging countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany could have some of their citizens vaccinated against COVID-19 before Canadians can get their own shots.

He says that's because those countries have their own vaccine-production facilities and Canada doesn't.

Rebuilding that capacity will take years, but Trudeau says the federal government has started the work.

He says having pre-bought an array of vaccine candidates from foreign manufacturers will help get Canadians effective doses as soon as possible.

But he adds it's premature to start circling dates on calendars for when the first doses will arrive.

Federal government has bought 26,000 doses of a treatment for COVID-19

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government has bought 26,000 doses of a treatment for COVID-19 from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

At a news conference in Ottawa, Trudeau didn't name the drug but said it had been co-developed with Vancouver's AbCellera Biologics.

The two companies announced last March they were co-operating on developing a treatment using antibodies from a patient who had already had the illness.

Trudeau says the government has an option to buy thousands more doses.

He says vaccines against COVID-19 are on the way but until they're widely available, Canadians need to do everything they can to avoid catching the novel coronavirus.