Younger Canadians saw rise in mortality as pandemic evolved: StatCan

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Provisional data from Statistics Canada shows excess mortality rates among younger Canadians in some provinces rose as the COVID-19 pandemic wore on.

The latest provisional data, released on Thursday, shows that excess mortality -- meaning percentage of deaths more than expected -- in terms of the three major waves: from April 2020 to June 2020, from October 2020 to the end of January 2021; and from August to mid-November 2021.

For males under the age of 45, excess deaths were at 11.8 per cent in the first wave, 19.7 per cent in the second wave and 24.4 per cent in the third wave. For women, excess deaths were 8.6 per cent, 11.7 per cent and 17.6 per cent for each wave, respectively.

When it comes to those over the age of 85, excess deaths actually dropped in the three waves.

For women, the first wave saw 22.5 per cent excess deaths, followed by 10.4 per cent and 3.4 per cent, while the men older than 85 saw 17.4 per cent excess deaths in the first wave, followed by 13.1 per cent and 6.4 per cent.

Overall, StatCan found that Canada experienced 28,987 excess deaths between March 2020 and November 2021, or about 6 per cent more than expected.

StatCan notes that excess deaths do not represent deaths from COVID-19, but rather a roundup of all deaths during the each period.

“Beyond deaths attributed to the disease itself, the pandemic could also have indirect consequences that increase or decrease the number of deaths as a result of various factors, including delayed medical procedures, increased substance use, or declines in deaths attributable to other causes, such as influenza,” the report stated

While the data is limited due to reporting delays, StatCan also noted that Alberta saw about 150 excess deaths per week during the emergence of the Omicron variant, representing about 25 per cent more deaths than expected for that period.

StatCan warns that these figures are provisional and do not include all deaths for this period. They may also not be complete for the more recent periods, due to reporting delays.

The data does not include Yukon.