Trudeau, Tam defend Canadian response times to COVID-19 pandemic

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian government began preparing for a possible pandemic when it first got word of a mysterious cluster of cases of pneumonia in China on New Year's Eve.

The federal government is facing accusations it didn't act quickly enough to warn Canadians about how dangerous COVID-19 was to their health and the economy.

Canada's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says there was a lot of work done in January and February, including getting labs ready to test for the novel coronavirus.

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu told Canadians as late as March 10th the risk in Canada was low, and much of the country was on lockdown within a week.