Ontario reports over 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 this month; top doc points to Delta
Ontario has reported the deaths of more than 1,000 people due to COVID-19 so far this month, a grim figure the province's top doctor largely attributes to the previous, more virulent strain of the virus, though he admits the data is murky.
The province has logged persistently high numbers of fatalities each day this month, despite the dominant Omicron variant of the virus typically causing milder illness and all but replacing the more severe Delta variant almost six weeks ago, while circulating among a well-vaccinated population.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said officials are trying to ascertain what factors are causing so many Ontarians to die, including whether Delta or Omicron or a combination of the two is responsible, but whole genome sequencing to determine variant type takes weeks.
Essentially 100 per cent of outbreaks in the community are Omicron right now, Moore said, but roughly 10 per cent of hospital admissions are still "relevant to Delta."
"Death is a delayed signal from an outbreak, given that we've got access to health care and an ability to try to protect people through hospitalization and intensive care unit settings," he said this week.
"In the first several weeks of January, we're confident that a significant proportion of (the deaths) were from Delta."
Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious diseases doctor, said many deaths are likely the result of infections that occurred as far back as early December, when Delta was dominant.
"We know that deaths are a lagging indicator, that they're often reported substantially later than they occur," he said.
"But even if they were mostly due to Omicron, it wouldn't surprise me just by the sheer volume of cases that we've seen, along with the fact that many of the very sick patients that we've been taking care of are either unvaccinated or under vaccinated and (their illnesses) behave very much like some of the earliest cases that we saw with COVID."
According to data from Public Health Ontario, there have been 1,075 deaths related to COVID-19 reported so far this month. About 57 per cent of the people who died were aged 80 or older, and another 35 per cent were people between the ages of 60 and 79.
The vaccination status of the people who died is not readily available, but Public Health Ontario says that in the past month, unvaccinated people aged 60 or older were more than 22 times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than their peers who received booster shots.
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious diseases doctor, said Omicron is causing disease differently than COVID-19 has in the past, and that may be a factor in the higher numbers of deaths.
During the third and fourth waves, there was a lot of "classic COVID," a severe pneumonia requiring lots of oxygen, Chakrabarti said. It could be treated, but some would go on to require ICU care and some would die. Many of the people who died were unvaccinated, and many were younger, he said.
With Omicron, a lot of people are being admitted to hospital for reasons other than pneumonia, with COVID-19 triggering other issues or exacerbating existing conditions, particularly in older people, Chakrabarti said.
"They're not coming with classic COVID requiring lots of oxygen. COVID is a thing that causes a mild fever, mild illness, but that's enough to put a lot of these individuals over the edge," he said.
"It's disproportionately causing destabilization of medically fragile individuals, who tend to be older, and their risk of dying to begin with is higher. But that's not to say that there isn't unvaccinated people coming in with classic COVID and dying. That's happening, but it's just this extra, new kind of feature that we didn't see in previous waves is really coming to the forefront right now."
Moore said he is trying to refine the death reporting process to make clearer if each fatality is caused by or associated with COVID-19. Ontario is also planning on doing a "selective review" of death certificates and documented deaths to assess the quality of the data.
As well, Moore said, he will be looking at "all cause mortality" to see if the province's reporting structure is missing deaths that could be associated with COVID-19.
"It's very important that we have good data for all Ontarians to understand the impact of COVID-19," he said. "It won't be changed in a day. It's going to be a journey to improve that level of data."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.