Wikipedia

COVID-19 Immunity Task Force

The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) was one of the Government of Canada's early efforts to track the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.[1] An external, dedicated secretariat was established in order to maximize the efficiency of the CITF's work.[2] 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

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The CITF was to use a serology "to survey representative samples of the population for the presence of antibodies to the virus".[3] 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:[2]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seen smiling in front of his country's flag

establish priorities and oversee the coordination of a series of country-wide blood test surveys that will tell us how widely the virus has spread in Canada and provide reliable estimates of potential immunity and vulnerabilities in Canadian populations.

Canada's government funded more than $1 billion for research into how to combat COVID-19 through the CITF. [4]

  • $40 million for the COVID-19 Genomics Network[5]
  • $23 million for the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre[6]
  • $29 million for the National Research Council of Canada[7]
  • $600 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund [8]
  • $10.3 million over 10 years, $5 million bonus to support the Canadian Immunization Research Network[9]
  • $114.9 million through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research[10]
SARS-CoV-2 strand

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.[11]

A pie chart showing the allocation of funds Trudeau put into each sector of the CITF.

The task force was to also estimate how many Canadians were immune to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[12]

Findings

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Catherine Hankins reported that less than 1% of 10,000 samples tested positive for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2[13].

The CITF also found that one in 100 Canadians were infected with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.[13]

Canadian Blood Services analyzed over 30,000 blood samples in total.[13]

Task Force membership

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The CITF Board was composed of doctors, infectious disease experts, and policy makers.[1][14]

Leadership Group

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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. [15]
  • Catherine Hankins, Co-chair
    • Deputy Medical Officer of Health at Calgary Health Services[16]
    • Helped identify E. Coli in uncooked hamburger, sent 49 samples to an Edmonton lab during the AIDS pandemic[16]
  • Timothy Evans, Executive Director
    • Senior Director of Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank Group[17]
  • Heather Hannah
  • Mona Nemer
  • Howard Njoo
  • Gina Ogilvie
  • Jutta Preiksaitis
  • Gail Tomblin Murphy
  • Paul Van Caeseele
Government of Canada representatives
Members

The CCITF leadership group expanded on 2 May 2020.[18] Its additional members as of March 2022 are:

Provincial & Territorial representatives

References

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  1. 1 2 Zimonjic, Peter; Kapelos, Vassy (23 April 2020). "WHO set pandemic response back by 2-3 weeks, says doctor on new federal task force". CBC News. Archived from the original on July 1, 2025.
  2. 1 2 "Prime Minister announces new support for COVID-19 medical research and vaccine development". Office of the Prime Minister of Canada. 23 April 2020. Archived from the original on 30 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "Canada launches serological testing initiative to help manage COVID-19". McGill University. 23 April 2020. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020.
  4. ↑ "Prime Minister announces new support for COVID-19 medical research and vaccine development".
  5. ↑ "CanCOGeN". GenomeCanada. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  6. ↑ "Home - Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization". vido. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  7. ↑ "Canada, National Research Council of Canada (NRC)". International Science Council. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  8. ↑ "Programs, Incentives and Tax Credits". www.investcanada.ca. 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  9. ↑ "Strengthening Canada's Immunization Research Capabilities". landing.cirnetwork.ca. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  10. ↑ Canada, Government of. "Organization Profile - Canadian Institutes of Health Research". federal-organizations.canada.ca. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  11. ↑ "Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG)". COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. Archived from the original on November 10, 2025. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  12. ↑ "COVID-19 Immunity Task Force".
  13. 1 2 3 "More questions than answers as Canada's immunity task force releases initial results".
  14. ↑ "Leadership Group". COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. Archived from the original on 2022-03-23. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  15. ↑ Webster, Paul (March 2020). "Canada and COVID-19: learning from SARS". The Lancet. 395 (10228): 936–937. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30670-X. PMC 7156122. PMID 32199479.
  16. 1 2 "Catherine Hankins". Calgary Herald. 1983-10-08. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  17. ↑ "Tim Evans - Covid Immunity Task Force (CITF), McGill Faculty of Medicine". ICCC. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  18. ↑ Naylor, David (May 2, 2020). "@CDavidNaylor on X: '🇨🇦 COVID-19 Immunity Task Force leadership group. Privileged to work with these talented & dedicated 🇨🇦 experts. See list below.'". X. Archived from the original on May 8, 2020.
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