Nearly one in four Canadians have caught COVID-19, poll suggests

Almost one in four Canadian respondents to a new online survey said they had been infected with COVID-19, while about three in four had not.

Almost one in four Canadian respondents to a new online survey said they had been infected with COVID-19, while about three in four had not.

As the country grapples with its sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and less data is shared with the public, the poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies offers a picture of how many people have been infected.

Christian Bourque, Leger executive vice-president, said it was notable that the rate of reported infection sat higher than what the official data has suggested.

The online survey of 1,538 Canadians, conducted April 8 to 10, cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

Thirty per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 said they had been infected with COVID-19, while 12 per cent of those 55 years and older had contracted the disease.

“What was really striking was the difference when it comes to age,” Bourque said.

“It seems to match the patterns that we’re seeing, that the more social you are _ going out to restaurants, bars, and concerts _ makes you a little bit more vulnerable to getting the disease.”

Vaccination status also played a role, with 38 per cent of unvaccinated respondents saying they had been infected compared to 20 per cent of their vaccinated counterparts.