20 COVID deaths recorded in one week as province creates new reporting standard

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This article was published 20/12/2023 (632 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province is reporting 20 COVID-19 deaths in one week after changing the way it collects data related to the virus.

The Dec. 3-9 number represents a staggering week-over-week increase in the death toll — a jump of more than 500 per cent compared to the previous week — because of the change in data collection.

“The new reporting standard is both more complete and more timely, as is based on direct reporting from the hospitals to Manitoba Health, compared to the prior methodology,” a provincial spokesperson stated Wednesday, saying prior and current data both report “COVID-associated” deaths.

“The change in reporting methodology is a contributing factor to the increase in reported deaths.

The spokesperson said “associated with” COVID reported deaths include people who had a confirmed positive lab test result for the virus within 30 days prior to their death or afterward, following a post-mortem, regardless of the cause of death.

“This reporting is consistent with communicable disease surveillance reporting protocols,” the province said.

Provincial respiratory virus surveillance reports previously counted all deceased patients who’d tested positive for COVID without determining their cause of death for the purposes of the weekly data, which led to a lack of clarity about the number of Manitobans dying “of” COVID rather than “with” COVID.

In general, Canadian provinces have become “much worse” at detecting and reporting COVID deaths because of the assumption that most people are dying “with, not from” the virus, said researcher Tara Moriarty, an associate professor and infectious diseases researcher at the University of Toronto. She is the director of COVID-19 Resources Canada, which has been tracking untimely deaths during the pandemic.

“People care based on what they see,” she said, saying the “under-reporting problem” could create a false sense of safety.

“All of this under-communication of what the situation actually is has a lot of effects. There may well be some people who really don’t care, but there are quite a few who would if they actually knew what was happening,” Moriarty added.

Better information might prompt more people to take precautions, such as getting vaccinated and boosted, or using appropriate ventilation during holiday parties.

“Most people don’t realize that across Canada right now, about one in 20 people are currently infected with COVID, so if people are going to go for holiday gatherings or events or family stuff where there will be more higher-risk people gathering, there’s a very good chance that people are going to pick up COVID from that.”

In Manitoba, viral transmission has been higher than the national average over the past couple of weeks, resulting in Moriarty’s estimation that about one in 14 Manitobans is currently infected. That high rate of infection is expected to cause more deaths. Moriarty’s research expects a 25 per cent jump in excess mortality in Manitoba based on the current infection rate.

Moriarty’s research, which relies on excess mortality data from Statistics Canada, estimates only a third of COVID deaths in Canada, and about 35 per cent in Manitoba, are being captured in provinces’ data. Quebec and Manitoba were the quickest at reporting deaths early in the pandemic, but a lag in all-causes mortality data out of Manitoba means it’s difficult for researchers to have a clear picture of the death toll beyond early 2022, Moriarty said.

Manitoba is a year behind all of the other provinces in excess mortality reporting. Moriarty said the government needs to speed up its data reporting amid historically high rates of untimely deaths.

“Between that and the toxic drug crisis, governments really need to start doing something about the very high mortality rates that we’re seeing, and they need to start responding, but they can’t do that if they don’t have evidence.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca