Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220110/dq220110a-eng.htm
Provisional death counts and excess mortality, January 2020 to October 2021
Released: 2022-01-10
Canada finds itself again in the midst of a COVID-19 surge with the emergence of the Omicron variant, and most provinces and territories are reporting infections in record numbers. In its commitment to keep Canadians informed of the effects of the pandemic, Statistics Canada today is releasing a new and updated provisional dataset from the Canadian Vital Statistics Death Database, covering the period from January 1, 2020 to November 6, 2021. The first case of the Omicron variant in Canada was reported at the end of November 2021. Statistics Canada will update, on a regular basis, data on excess deaths, causes of death and comorbidities as these data become available, in order to keep Canadians informed as the emergence of this new COVID-19 variant and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continue to influence the course of the pandemic in Canada and worldwide.
To understand both the direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic, it is important to measure excess mortality, which occurs when there are more deaths than expected in a given period. It should be noted that, even without a pandemic, there is always some year-to-year variation in the number of people who die in a given week. This means that the number of expected deaths should fall within a certain range of values. There is evidence of excess mortality when weekly deaths are consistently higher than the expected number, but especially when they exceed the range of what is expected over several consecutive weeks.
Based on the provisional data released today, an estimated 27,585 excess deaths were reported in Canada from March 2020 to the beginning of October 2021—6.3% more deaths than what would be expected were there no pandemic—after accounting for changes in the population, such as aging. Over this same period, 26,750 deaths occurred that were directly attributed to COVID-19...
Provisional death counts and excess mortality, January 2020 to October 2021
Released: 2022-01-10
Canada finds itself again in the midst of a COVID-19 surge with the emergence of the Omicron variant, and most provinces and territories are reporting infections in record numbers. In its commitment to keep Canadians informed of the effects of the pandemic, Statistics Canada today is releasing a new and updated provisional dataset from the Canadian Vital Statistics Death Database, covering the period from January 1, 2020 to November 6, 2021. The first case of the Omicron variant in Canada was reported at the end of November 2021. Statistics Canada will update, on a regular basis, data on excess deaths, causes of death and comorbidities as these data become available, in order to keep Canadians informed as the emergence of this new COVID-19 variant and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continue to influence the course of the pandemic in Canada and worldwide.
To understand both the direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic, it is important to measure excess mortality, which occurs when there are more deaths than expected in a given period. It should be noted that, even without a pandemic, there is always some year-to-year variation in the number of people who die in a given week. This means that the number of expected deaths should fall within a certain range of values. There is evidence of excess mortality when weekly deaths are consistently higher than the expected number, but especially when they exceed the range of what is expected over several consecutive weeks.
Based on the provisional data released today, an estimated 27,585 excess deaths were reported in Canada from March 2020 to the beginning of October 2021—6.3% more deaths than what would be expected were there no pandemic—after accounting for changes in the population, such as aging. Over this same period, 26,750 deaths occurred that were directly attributed to COVID-19...
