The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which led the country’s COVID-19 response, approved $120,000 in funding for specially designed commemorative coins to be given to pandemic health-care workers, according to a report.
Titled the “COVID coin” initiative and approved by PHAC’s president, Harpreet S. Kochhar, in June 2022, the coins are meant to be given to all PHAC employees that worked during the pandemic over the past three years, according to Global News, who obtained documents regarding the initiative through Access to Information. PHAC said the coins are meant to be “an everlasting expression of gratitude” to its employees “for their contributions under unprecedented circumstances.”
The gift was initially estimated to cost about $16 each for the 7,500 PHAC employees the agency anticipated would be included, bringing the estimated total price tag up to around $120,000. According to their planned design, the coins are nickel-plated with French and English inscriptions and impressed with an image of the spiked-ball COVID virus. They will also be presented in a blue velvet box.