The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) was one of the Government of Canada's early efforts to track the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. An external, dedicated secretariat was established in order to maximize the efficiency of the CITF's work. The group terminated its mandate on March 31, 2024.
The group terminated its mandate on March 31, 2024. During the four-year period, the CITF provided several purposes and uses for the general Canadian population.
Purpose The CITF was to use a serology "to survey representative samples of the population for the presence of antibodies to the virus". Trudeau's press release on 23 April 2020, on the initiation of the CCITF listed several goals it would help to achieve notably that it would:
Canada's government funded more than $1 billion for research into how to combat COVID-19 through the CITF.
$40 million for the COVID-19 Genomics Network $23 million for the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre $29 million for the National Research Council of Canada $600 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund $10.3 million over 10 years, $5 million bonus to support the Canadian Immunization Research Network $114.9 million through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
A Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG) was also established within the CITF to monitor the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines made available in Canada.
The task force was to also estimate how many Canadians were immune to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Findings Catherine Hankins reported that less than 1% of 10,000 samples tested positive for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.
The CITF also found that one in 100 Canadians were infected with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.
Canadian Blood Services analyzed over 30,000 blood samples in total.
Task Force membership The CITF Board was composed of doctors, infectious disease experts, and policy makers.
Leadership Group
Executive Committee David Naylor, Co-chair Wrote "Learning from SARS" in 2003, a 200-page report on Canada's response to the SARS outbreak from 2002-2004. Catherine Hankins, Co-chair Deputy Medical Officer of Health at Calgary Health Services Helped identify E. Coli in uncooked hamburger, sent 49 samples to an Edmonton lab during the AIDS pandemic Timothy Evans, Executive Director Senior Director of Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank Group Heather Hannah Mona Nemer Howard Njoo Gina Ogilvie Jutta Preiksaitis Gail Tomblin Murphy Paul Van Caeseele
Government of Canada representatives Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Mona Nemer, Chief Science Advisor of Canada Stephen Lucas, Deputy Minister of Health of Canada
Members The CCITF leadership group expanded on 2 May 2020. Its additional members as of March 2022 are:
Provincial & Territorial representatives Shelly Bolotin, Ontario Marguerite Cameron, Prince Edward Island Catherine Elliott, Yukon Richard Garceau, New Brunswick Heather Hannah, Northwest Territories Mel Krajden, British Columbia Christie Lutsiak, Alberta Richard Massé, Quebec Jessica Minion, Saskatchewan Michael Patterson, Nunavut Gail Tomblin Murphy, Nova Scotia Paul Van Caeseele, Manitoba
References
External links Covid-19 Test Kits