Study underway in BC to estimate how many young people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2
Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) is supporting a BC Children’s Hospital-led research project that aims to better grasp the role that children and young adults have played in the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia (BC).
Two studies will help determine whether health care workers in Canada are at higher risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2
Preliminary, non-peer reviewed results suggest that in phase 1 of a study on healthcare workers led by Dr. Nicola Cherry at the University of Alberta, rates of infection were higher in physicians than in other HCWs and higher in Quebec physicians than among physicians in Alberta.
New study to determine how many Canadians have been infected with SARS-CoV-2
Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) is supporting a new study to identify how many Canadians have been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The project, conducted by Statistics Canada, will be the first to use a nationally representative sample to reflect COVID-19 seroprevalence right across Canada at national, provincial, and territorial [...]
Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force funds national study looking at seroprevalence of COVID-19 antibodies among high-risk populations
The Government of Canada is investing $1.9 million through Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) to fund a Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) study looking at COVID-19 seroprevalence across Canada, with a particular focus on certain populations that are at higher risk of infection. CanPath is a national population health research platform that follows the health of 330,000 Canadians (or 1% [...]
Study underway in Montreal to estimate how many children and teens have been infected with SARS-CoV-2
Today, Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) announces its support for a research project that will estimate how many children and teens in Montreal have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This $720,000 investment will allow us to better understand how much virus transmission has occurred to children and teens, and will [...]
Investing in our most vulnerable: The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force funds comprehensive new SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study focused on aging Canadians
Canada's COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) announces its support for a new SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study focused on aging Canadians, a population that has been shown to be at greatest risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 disease. This $4 million investment will be carried out by the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), a national platform for research on [...]
COVID-19 Immunity Task Force launches serological study using antenatal samples
This study will analyze blood samples collected for standard testing in pregnancy from expectant women across Canada to help determine the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and when the virus entered Canada Today, Canada's COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) announces its support for a study of antenatal serum samples (using blood samples from standard tests from expectant women). This $3.1 million [...]
Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force partners with CIHR to support 22 studies investigating COVID-19
Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), is supporting 22 studies that focus on improving our understanding of COVID-19 immunity in Canada. An investment of $12.4 million in these studies supports both translational research into SARS-CoV-2 immunity and studies to determine the number of people infected [...]
Final results of initial Canadian SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study announced
Study suggests as few as 0.7% of adults have antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Canadian Blood Services and Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) are releasing final results of a collaborative nine-province SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study. This analysis, based on 37,373 blood samples from blood donor centres across Canada (except Quebec and the Territories), reveals that fewer than 1 per [...]
The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force welcomes the results of the blood donor seroprevalence study led by Héma-Québec
The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force welcomes the results of the blood donor seroprevalence study led by Héma-Québec and will be working with that organization to validate these results through the use of another antibody test. We look forward to reporting on these results in the coming weeks together with Héma-Québec. The Héma-Québec study results suggest that [...]
COVID-19 Immunity Task Force welcomes first results from Public Health Ontario’s serosurveillance program
Today, Public Health Ontario (PHO) released the initial results of its COVID-19 Serosurveillance initiative. By testing blood specimens submitted to the PHO laboratories for other purposes, the report demonstrates how levels of COVID-19 antibodies in the Ontario population evolved from 0.4% in March-April to 1.5% in late May to 1.1% in the month of June. [...]
New study offers first glimpse into how widespread COVID-19 antibodies are in Canada’s adult population
Canadian Blood Services and the CITF reveal that over the period May 9 through June 8, 2020, fewer than 1 per cent of the 10,000 samples from blood donors tested positive for antibodies to the novel coronavirus.