Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 40,349 more people have died in Canada than expected, according to the country’s vital statistics office. Unexpected deaths represent a 7.4 percent increase in the number of people who died nationwide if the pandemic had never occurred, according to updates released Thursday by Statistics Canada. Excessive mortality counts how many deaths actually occurred compared to what would normally be expected. It’s one way researchers have been able to figure out the actual number of lives lost due to COVID-19. Last month, the World Health Organization reported that the number of deaths worldwide during the pandemic had risen to nearly 15 million. During the same period, only 32,490 deaths were attributed directly to COVID-19, a gap that Statistics Canada researchers say could be the “indirect effect” of the pandemic, such as delayed medical procedures, increased substance use or reduced deaths. from endemic diseases such as influenza.
Omicron’s deadly legacy
When the highly contagious Omicron variant swept the Canadian population in late 2021 and early 2022, many Canadians experienced relatively mild COVID-19 symptoms. However, as public health authorities and experts noted at the time, its highly contagious nature meant that more people became infected, leading to a greater cumulative risk of death. The latest figures from Statistics Canada confirm that excessive deaths increased across Canada in January 2022 in “a new period of significant excessive mortality.” The number of unexpected deaths across Canada in January rose to 4,085, up 13.2% from the expected pandemic. Some Canadian groups experienced higher-than-expected death rates than others. With 904 over-deaths, British Columbia had one of the highest rates of over-mortality at 22.2%. That was just behind Quebec, which saw a 22.4 percent increase in the number of unexpected deaths.
BC, death rates among younger men increased
Younger Canadians and men also died at higher rates in January 2022, especially in the western provinces of the country. Deaths of people under the age of 45 were about 50 percent higher than expected in Alberta and BC, while older groups in these provinces saw over-mortality drop by less than half, hovering around 20 percent. one hundred. Nationwide, there were 11.7 percent more deaths among men in January, compared with 6.8 percent for women. But this gap was not consistent across the country. At 1.6 times higher than the national average, BC reported the highest rate of excessive mortality among men in the country. The number of men who died in BC January 2022 was 26.5 percent higher than expected, compared to a 16.5 percent increase for women, according to the Statistics Canada. The statistical service said that there is still no data available on why and how people died in January 2022. It is important to keep in mind, deaths from the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19, warn researchers from Statistics Canada. As they put it, “many overdose deaths among younger Canadians can be attributed to other causes, such as overdose.”
