2 years into pandemic, the North's COVID-19 death rate still trends lower

When Brendan Hanley, Yukon's then-chief medical officer, announced the territory's first COVID-19 death 17 months ago, he suggested it was a bit of a reality check.

"Weare just as susceptible here to COVID as we are anywhere else," Hanley said, in October 2020.

Up to that point, the North hadn't reported any COVID-19-related deaths though the pandemic was into its seventh month in Canada. Soon enough, though, Nunavut would also report its first fatalities. The N.W.T.'s first COVID-19 death was reportedlast August.

Now two full years into the pandemic, many more Northerners have been lost to COVID-19.Butthe death rate for all three territories is still lower than in most provinces and for Canada as a whole. Only the Maritimes have roughly comparable death rates.

Nunavut has reported a total of five COVID-19-related deaths, which translates to a rate of 13 per 100,000 population. That's the second-lowest in Canada,according to federal statistics, with only P.E.I. faring better (at 10 per 100,000).

For Canada as a whole, the death rate is 97 per 100,000 people.

Nunavut's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, cites two factors that have likely helped keep Nunavut's death rate relatively low the territory's younger population, and the fact that the virus did not seem to makes its way into Nunavut until relatively late.

"We didn't get the full force of the outbreak until almost a year after vaccination ... 11 months after vaccination had become available in the territory," Patterson said.

"And so that delay in arrival helped blunt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, so far, anyway."

The territory's younger population also meansthat proportionally fewer Nunavummiut are at risk of serious illness or death from infection, he said.

"If we're going to compare jurisdictions, we need to do what's called an age-adjusted comparison," he said.

"It's especially important for an illness like COVID-19, where we know that all ages are at some risk, but we know that ... as people age, the risk increases dramatically."

The raw number of Nunavummiut who died with COVID-19 is too small to do any sort of meaningful statistical analysis to discovertrends,Patterson said. But he did note that none of those who died had been fully vaccinated against the virus.

The N.W.T.'s online dashboard is reporting20deaths so farfrom COVID-19, which translates to44 deaths per 100,000 population a rate lower than the majority of provinces and Canada as a whole, but higher than all the Maritime provinces.

Yukon, meanwhile, was just slightly higher than the N.W.T., in both the raw number of people who have died with COVID-19, and the associated death rate. The territory reported its 23rd COVID-19 death this week, meaning a death rate of 54 people per 100,000 population.

Neither N.W.T. nor Yukon have released aggregate demographic data about those who have died such as their ages, genders, or place of residence, nor have they routinely reported the deceased's vaccination status.

Yukon's acting Chief Medical OfficerDr. Catherine Elliott says that's something she and her staff are actively working on, andsays that data analysis will eventually be released to the public.

In the meantime, she offered a few observations.

"What is clear is that the majority of people who have died are older adults, although we have had some people in workingages who have passed away," she said.

She also says the majority of those Yukoners who have diedwere not vaccinated, or only partially-vaccinated.

"That's not a surprise.It's because the vaccine prevents severe illness and death in most people," she said.

"And also, it's not a surprise that some vaccinated people have passed away. The vaccine is highly effective, but it's not as effective in those people who have severe immunocompromised or multiple other risk factors for severe disease."

Elliott says the territory's death analysis will look at other demographic data, including people's place of residence. She says that among those Yukoners who have so far died from COVID-19, there are both rural and urban residents, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

"We need to look at the information and see what we can glean and how best to share that information. But I wouldn't say there's any place that hasn't been touched by COVID."