COVID-19 pandemic still hitting low income areas hardest, Ontario's science table says

Low income areas in Ontario have borne the brunt of COVID-19 in every single wave of the pandemic, the latest data from the province shows.

In new modelling released on Thursday, the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says this finding was evident even in the fifth wave fuelled by the Omicron variant.

Consistent with previous waves, low income neighbourhoods in the fifth wave experienced two to two-and-a-half times the mortality rate experienced in the highest income neighbourhoods. 

The data shows that the lowest income neighbourhoods in Ontario recorded the highest COVID-19 death rates in all five pandemic waves.

Given these findings, doctors say they are concerned that COVID-19 could continue to harm people in poor and racialized communities in Ontario disproportionately if all three levels of governments fail to make investments in social safety nets.

Lauren Cipriano, a member of Ontario's COVID-19 modelling consensus table, said these trends have been apparent since the pandemic first swept Ontario more than two years ago. Cipriano is an associate professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and Ivey Business School. 

"This has been something many people have been talking about since those early days of COVID," she said.

Cipriano said the findings show that Ontario has not yet learned how to protect marginalized communities from bearing a greater pandemic burden. She said the trends are expected to continue unless actions are taken to address disparities.

Mask mandates in most indoor settings in Ontario are set to lift on Monday. "I certainly am concerned that what we've already seen, which is a disproportionate impact, is going to be aggravated," she said.

Cipriano said officials can reduce the COVID-19 impact on lower income neighbourhoods by maintaining high workplace safety standards and protections, ensuring there are high ventilation standards in workplaces and schools, and engaging in outreach to marginalized and racialized communities to overcome barriers to vaccination. 

According to Cipriano, people in lower income communities have a higher risk of exposure to the virus through their employment in the services sector, are less likely to have received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and are more likely to live in high density multigenerational households. 

While higher income people are more likely to be able to work from home, or to work in offices with good spacing and ventilation, lower income individuals are more likely to be front-line workers with large numbers of contacts in their workplaces or to be working in environments with lower-quality ventilation systems, she said.

As well, lower income people are more likely to have more than one job, to use public transit to get to and from work and to be exposed to the virus at work. They are less likely to have paid sick leave, or the flexibility to take a sick day without jeopardizing their jobs.

As for vaccination rates, she said the barriers to access in lower income areas include child care, transportation and time off work for appointments. She said it became evident after the third wave, when vaccines became available, that lower income communities had lower rates.