As the pandemic continues in Canada and around the world, certain groups of people remain more vulnerable to the disease, including immunocompromised children. While vaccination remains a safe and effective option to protect this population, the number of doses needed for optimal protection has yet to be determined.
An analysis of data from 21 studies, funded by the Government of Canada through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) and that relied on blood testing, provides a clearer picture of the massive scale of the Omicron wave in Canada. Before the arrival of the Omicron variant, approximately 7% of Canadians had infection-acquired antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Between December 2021 and May 2022, the proportion rose by 45% of Canadians having antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
A COVID CommUNITY – South Asian study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) Open has found that South Asian communities living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) suffered disproportionately from COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic. The Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), invested approximately $1.5 million in this study to understand vaccine confidence and hesitancy in this population that has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
Nearly 30 per cent of Canadian adults – 9 million people – were infected during the Omicron variant wave early in 2022, compared with just 10 per cent who had been infected in the previous four waves, according to a new study led by Toronto researchers.
MONTREAL, May 9, 2022 - A new seroprevalence study of blood donors, conducted by Héma-Québec, estimates that more than one in four Quebec adults developed antibodies to COVID-19 due to infection between the start of the year and mid-March.
Montreal, May 3, 2022 – New findings, published in The Lancet Rheumatology, suggest that people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) respond well to vaccination and that the COVID-19 vaccines in Canada are highly effective in protecting them against hospitalization from COVID-19. The results of this study are highly pertinent for people living with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis (a type of arthritis that characteristically affects the spine), psoriasis (a skin condition), and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – the four patient populations included in the study, supported by the Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF).
Vancouver, April 6, 2022 - As many jurisdictions in Canada begin to ease public health measures intended to limit serious cases and fatalities caused by COVID-19, new research from the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) suggests many people remain at risk of serious disease. The Government [...]
Ottawa, Ontario | Public Health Agency of Canada Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is continually guided by the latest science, evidence and research. To that end, the Government of Canada is actively working with a community of national and international experts to gather evidence on the health impacts of the pandemic, as well [...]
The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) and the Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG) are supporting a new study that will work with three First Nations communities to investigate vaccine hesitancy, the immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine and health outcomes after vaccination within those communities. As of November 9, 2021, according to Indigenous Services [...]
The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) COVID-19 Antibody Study is expanding. The Government of Canada is investing $1.9 million through Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) to fund an extension of CanPath’s existing study over a longer period of time, allowing for an additional collection of blood samples and questionnaire responses from participants. [...]