Joe Biden 'to meet Canadian PM Justin Trudeau' next month to combat coronavirus pandemic

US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would meet next month where they would deliberate upon measures to take down coronavirus in North America. The reports suggest that the meeting was announced following a phone call between the two leaders on January 22. The North American continent has been bearing of the brunt of the pandemic with the US and Canada’s joint caseload surpassing 25 million. 

During the elaborate phone call, the leaders "recognised that both countries' fundamental priority is to end the global COVID-19 pandemic”. In addendum, they also discussed collaboration on vaccines against coronavirus, Trudeau’s office said in a statement. Meanwhile, White House said that the phone call, which marked Joe Biden’s first telephonic conversation with a foreign leader, focused on “strategic importance of the US-Canada relationship” and also innovative ways to battle the pandemic.

'Work to do together' 

"The Prime Minister and President reiterated the urgent need for ambitious action on climate change, reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris Agreement, and agreed to work together on net-zero emissions, zero-emissions vehicles, cross-border clean electricity transmission, and the Arctic," a statement by Trudeau's office added. 

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This comes as Biden warned that worse pandemic in the US was yet to come.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the coronavirus cases across the globe have crossed 96 million and the US remains the worst-hit country, with around a fifth of the two million global deaths. The spread of the deadly virus has been fuelled by the emergence of new variants including the one that was first detected in Britain and has now spread to more than 60 countries. John Hopkins University on Wednesday showed that nearly 405,400 people have died from the disease in the US, which is more than the 405,399 total American combat and non-combat deaths in WWII.

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