Extreme heat, overdoses contributed to excess deaths in Canada amid COVID-19: report
Global News
Statistics Canada found "indirect consequences" of the COVID-19 pandemic accounted for some of the excess deaths reported over the past two years.
Extreme heat in Western Canada last year and an escalating drug overdose crisis helped contribute to a nearly 6 per cent rise in deaths across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Statistics Canada.
Although the provisional excess mortality report released Thursday found COVID-19 accounted for a vast majority of the estimated 30,146 excess deaths from March 2020 through December 2021, it says the pandemic likely had “indirect consequences” that led to other excess deaths.
Those consequences include delayed health care response and increased substance abuse. But experts say addressing the underlying issues — extreme heat and safe supply — can help lessen those impacts and save lives.
Last summer, one of the most extreme heat waves in history led to more than 3,500 deaths in British Columbia and Alberta over a two-week period ending July 10, according to the report.
In B.C., much of the blame for heat-related deaths was put on long waits for paramedics, who told Global News that the health-care system — already strained by the pandemic — was stretched even further.
BC Emergency Health Services did not activate its emergency coordination centre until the day the heat began to subside.
Dr. Blair Feltmate, a professor at the University of Waterloo and head of the school’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, says extreme heat is the deadliest of all climate change impacts, often leading to dozens of deaths at least.
“When floods or fires occur, generally speaking, (we’ll see) one, two, three, maybe four people die, which of course is four too many,” he said. “With extreme heat, it’s a whole other ballgame.