Theresa Tam to Retire as Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer in June 

Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Theresa Tam is set to retire at the end of next week after serving in the position since 2017.

Tam said her term will end on June 20, and she does not have another job lined up. Tam said she intends to take some time to consider new opportunities, prioritize her family, and make time for playing music and long-distance running.

Tam was born in Hong Kong and raised in the United Kingdom before coming to Canada in the 1990s. A pediatric infectious disease physician, she joined the Canadian government’s public health team in 1998.

She was the chief of Health Canada’s immunization and respiratory infections division during the SARS outbreak in 2003 and co-chaired a federal report in 2006 on pandemic preparedness in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak.

As the COVID-19 outbreak spread and a global pandemic was declared, Tam became the face of the federal government’s response to the disease and frequently gave press conferences to provide updates on the virus and give medical advice.

Tam was appointed in April 2020 by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to a new advisory body, the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, to coordinate serological surveys across Canada.

She is also a member of a number of World Health Organization committees.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.