Daily COVID-19 digest
Save the date — live Q&A with our CEO: Please join us on Wednesday, July 8 at 1 p.m. ET for the next live event with our CEO. We will be doing things a little differently this time around. With many of you taking vacation during the week of Canada Day, we have made the decision to postpone the event an extra week to ensure as many people as possible can attend. In addition, we want to have enough time to continue our discussion around diversity, equity and inclusion. To do so, we are extending the live event to 1.5 hours, with the first half of the session dedicated to this critical topic. An Outlook invite will be sent to you in the coming days with the details on how to participate and more information on our guest speakers and the format. We look forward to seeing you all there and to continue these important discussions.
Nominate a colleague for Living Our Values: Every year, we come together to recognize and celebrate employees who truly exemplify our values while contributing to lifesaving work. Until July 10, we are encouraging all of you to nominate an outstanding colleague for the Living Our Values awards. This year, perhaps more than ever, we need to recognize outstanding work in under truly unprecedented circumstances With just five minutes of your time you can recognize those who continue to support Canada’s Lifeline and bring our values of ICARE to work with them every day. We are doing our part to spread a little inspiration. Starting tomorrow, we will be highlighting some of the amazing comments we’ve received through your nominations in the daily digest. Need even more motivation? Check out some inspiring stories of our 2019 Living Our Values recipients on Connect.
New study to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies: Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec have formed a research partnership with the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force to determine the prevalence of the COVID-19 antibody in Canadians’ blood serum. “When it comes to COVID-19, there are still a lot of unanswered questions,” says Dr. Chantale Pambrun, director of Canadian Blood Services’ Centre for Innovation. One of those questions is how many Canadians have been exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19. Canadian Blood Services is uniquely positioned to help provide data on the presence of COVID-19 antibodies in a large number of people across Canada relatively quickly. Learn more on blood.ca.
BEAP welcomes applications addressing COVID-19 transfusion challenges: Making the most out of every donation is essential. At a time where the number of donors we can welcome is limited by physical distancing factors, a funding program that supports making the most out of blood donations is now welcoming applications. The Blood Efficiency Accelerator Program or “BEAP” is a highly innovative research funding program geared towards optimizing blood product use while maintaining the safety of the blood supply. BEAP will give priority to projects focused on improving procedures and protocols at Canadian hospitals or at Canadian Blood Services that will improve the use of red blood cells, platelets and plasma products. This year, the competition is welcoming applications addressing COVID-19-related transfusion challenges. Learn more on blood.ca.
Question of the day: What’s the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and how is Canadian Blood Services equipped to help with determining prevalence of the COVID-19 antibody in Canadians’ blood serum?
The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force was announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in April, and its role is to collect blood tests from at least one million Canadians over the next two years. The seroprevalence study will capture data from Canadian blood donors, including those who may have only suffered a mild infection or were asymptomatic to COVID-19 and were eligible for donating blood.
The study will give policy-makers an understanding of the actual COVID-19 infection rate for different groups and regions in Canada. This will better inform public health policy decisions as the pandemic continues to unfold.
Canadian Blood Services has built infrastructure and experience to support this study. We already routinely test blood donations and have an active research program that has undertaken seroprevalence work to guide policies in the past. The first phase of this study is happening in the coming weeks, when we will test a proportion of leftover samples from blood donations to assess for the presence of antibodies to COVID-19. We will be doing approximately 37,000 tests over a month-long period and expect additional phases of testing to follow. Learn more on Connect.
About the daily digest
This daily digest will highlight the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters. Things are moving quickly, so you can expect to hear from us daily. No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.
Click here to read past editions of the daily digest.
Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca.