Study finds Winnipeg’s concentration of COVID-19 hotspots not as high as other urban centres

People wait in line at a COVID-19 testing facility in Burnaby, B.C., on Thursday, August 13, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Winnipeg -

A new study analyzing COVID-19 hotspots in major Canadian cities found Winnipeg’s concentration was not as high as some of its counterparts.

The study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal studied 16 urban centres using surveillance and census data for social determinants like income, housing, essential work and visible minority status.

The data used for Winnipeg came from the Manitoba Population Research Data Repository.

According to the study, researchers found that visible minority status was the social determinant that was important across all cities.

However, the study found Winnipeg did not have as high a concentration of COVID-19 hotspots because of how people live and work.

“We were a little bit surprised with the magnitude of the difference between Winnipeg and other cities,” said Dr. Alan Katz, author of the study and director of the Manitoba Centre for Public Policy. “But it makes sense when you look at how people live. In other big cities, more people are living in high-rise buildings and in higher-density areas. We have areas where people live with significant challenges and poverty, but they’re not living in the high-density conditions which seems to be a key risk factor.”

Katz also noted that people in some larger cities who didn’t have the option of staying home from work or were not eligible for sick leave appeared to live in similar areas that became significant hotspots.

However, Winnipeg did not have the same localized effect.

“It’s about recognizing that pandemics, in particular, don’t affect everybody equally,” Katz said. “We need to target our interventions to those who are at most risk, and in this case, it’s very clear that the most at-risk people are the people who live with higher socioeconomic challenges.”

The full study can be read here.