On April 12th - the population % of Halton's COVID19 cases is higher than the province when ranked by age

News 100 redBy Staff

April 14th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The Regional Public Health office released COVID-19 data up to end of day on April 12, 2020

The population % of Halton’s COVID-19 cases is higher than the province when ranked by age.  This is because Halton has more seniors than any other part of the province.

The curve has not yet flattened.

The data tells us that there were:

87 COVID-19 cases reported to Halton Region Public Health since the last update (63 confirmed + 24 probable)

356  COVID-19 cases reported to Halton Region Public Health to date (316 confirmed + 40 probable)

Fig 1

COVID-19 cases, by reported date, Halton Region, Mar. 1-Apr. 12, 2020, shows the 356 COVID-19 cases that had been reported to Halton Region Public Health by end of the day on April 12. All cases have been graphed according to the date they were reported, which is often several days after the onset of symptoms. Among the cases in this figure, 87 were reported since the last update (meaning they were reported between April 9 and April 12, 2020).

 

Individuals who are lab-confirmed cases are shown in green. Individuals who are probable cases are shown in orange. Probable cases are epi-linked cases, which means they are presumed to have COVID-19 because they are symptomatic close contacts of cases or returning travelers who have COVID-19 symptoms.

Case demographics

48 Halton COVID-19 cases work in health care (13% of all cases)

Fig 2

Figure 2: COVID-19 cases, by age and sex, Halton Region, 2020 Figure shows that by end of the day on April 12, the most COVID-19 cases were among Halton residents aged 40-59 (with 129 cases, or 36%). 208 of the 356 cases (58%) were female.

Municipal level

COVID-19 cases, by municipality of residence, Halton Region, 2020

The figure 3 shows that by end of the day on April 12, the greatest number of COVID-19 cases were among residents of Oakville (with 122 cases, or 34%). Please note this figure shows counts, and therefore does not take into account the different population sizes or age structures of the four municipalities. Counts in municipalities can also be inflated by outbreaks that have occurred within institutions in their boundaries.

Fig 4

Percentage of COVID-19 cases, by exposure source, Halton Region, 2020

Case Exposure source
Figure shows that by end of the day on April 12, 154 of Halton Region’s COVID-19 cases (43%) had no known travel or contact history, and therefore were believed to have acquired the virus within Ontario, making them community cases. 96 cases (27%) had contact with a confirmed case that was believed to be the source of infection. 83 of the cases (23%) had a history of travel that was believed to have been the source of their infection. Information on exposure source was pending for 23 cases (6%).

Case outcomes

46 Halton cases of COVID-19 have ever been hospitalized to date

114 Halton cases of COVID-19 have recovered to date

11 Halton cases of COVID-19 have died to date

 

Institutional outbreaks

1 confirmed institutional outbreak of COVID-19 reported to Halton Region Public Health since the last update

7 confirmed institutional outbreaks of COVID-19 reported to Halton Region Public Health to date

Among the seven confirmed institutional outbreaks reported to date, four (57%) have been in retirement homes, while two occurred in long-term care homes and one occurred in a hospital. One of the confirmed outbreaks was reported since the last update (meaning they were reported between April 9 and April 12, 2020). None of the confirmed outbreaks have yet been declared over. Please note these counts do not include any suspected outbreaks that remain under investigation.

Comparison to Ontario

7,470 total confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Ontario to date

Fig 5

Age-specific rates of COVID-19 (per 10,000 population), Halton Region and Ontario, 2020

Figure shows age-specific rates of COVID-19 for Halton and Ontario. Rates take into account the population size of each age group to make it possible to compare between different areas. Halton’s age-specific rates are now similar to the provincial rates for all age groups (for example, while Halton has 21.9 cases per 10,000 residents aged 80+, this is not statistically significantly different from the 17.0 cases per 10,000 residents aged 80+ in Ontario). It is important to note that these rates will fluctuate as numbers increase throughout the pandemic, and that differences between age groups may reflect differences in the likelihood of developing symptoms and being tested.

Data limitations and data sources:

All Halton case data: integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS), extracted at 7:00 AM on April 13, 2020, to reflect data entered by the end of the day on April 12, 2020

Ontario case data: Public Health Ontario, Epidemiologic Summary, COVID-19 in Ontario: January 15, 2020 to April 12, 2020, posted on April 13, 2020 to https://www.ontario.ca/page/2019-novel-coronavirus

Denominators for Halton and Ontario age-specific rates: Population projections [2020], IntelliHEALTH Ontario, extracted on April 8, 2020.

Data notes

All cases of diseases of public health significance diagnosed in Ontario are entered into iPHIS by local public health units. iPHIS is the Integrated Public Health Information System. It is a dynamic disease reporting system which allows ongoing updates to data previously entered. As a result, data extracted from iPHIS represent a snapshot at the time of extraction and may differ from previous or subsequent reports as data are updated.

The data only represent cases reported to public health and recorded in iPHIS. As a result, all counts will be subject to varying degrees of under-reporting due to a variety of factors, such as disease awareness and medical care seeking behaviours, which may depend on severity of illness, clinical practice, changes in laboratory testing, and reporting behaviours.

Cases are included if their “diagnosing health unit” in iPHIS is Halton Region, which means counts include only individuals whose primary residence is in Halton Region. The case may not necessarily have been managed by Halton Region, if they were temporarily residing elsewhere during their case management period. Cases managed by Halton Region who normally live elsewhere but who were managed by Halton Region staff because they were temporarily residing in Halton during their case management period have not been included.

Cases for which the Disposition Status in iPHIS was reported as ENTERED IN ERROR, DOES NOT MEET DEFINITION, DUPLICATE-DO NOT USE, or any variation on these values have been excluded.

Figure 1 distinguishes between lab-confirmed and probable cases. Since April 7, probable cases are defined as epi-linked cases, meaning they are symptomatic close contacts of cases or returning travelers who have COVID-19 symptoms and therefore are presumed to have COVID-19. All other figures and numbers include both confirmed and probable cases combined.

In subsequent reports, counts in Figure 1 may increase as cases are added from past dates due to delayed data entry or new arrival of lab results. To minimize such retrospective changes, cases have been graphed according to case reported date, which does not reflect onset of illness.

Cases are considered to work in health care if they are known to have an occupation that involves caring for patients, e.g. physician, nurse, occupational therapist, recreational therapist, chiropractor, paramedic, midwife, orderly, etc.

Exposure type is determined by examining the exposure and risk factor fields from iPHIS to determine whether a case travelled, was a contact of a case or neither. A hierarchy has been applied as follows: Travel-related > Close contact of a confirmed case > Neither (indicating community acquisition) > Information pending.

Case outcomes (hospitalizations, recovery, deaths) reflect the latest available information reported to Halton Region Public Health and recorded in iPHIS by the extraction time.

Institutional outbreaks include outbreaks of COVID-19 in settings such as long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and prisons.

The story for the period ending April 8th.

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1 comment to On April 12th – the population % of Halton’s COVID19 cases is higher than the province when ranked by age

  • Alan Harrington

    The COVID-19 issue has been with us for about 4 weeks now.

    The government gets asked questions about the situation – and the reply is always the same:
    1) Wash your hands…
    2) Maintain social distancing…
    3) We are working on it…

    The result is many people are still suffering.
    Why are people in nursing homes and senior care hit hardest?
    Why is Joseph Brant hospital experiencing an outbreak?
    Are the people there washing their hands and maintaining social distancing?

    If they ARE – then that remedy obviously doesn’t work.
    If they are NOT washing and distancing – then why not?

    B) Some very high level government officials exist to watch for this type of situation.
    The Ministry of Health for example. Why did this group drop the ball? Why did they miss it? Why did they not act sooner? Why were they so ill prepared? Why no apology?
    HAD they sounded the alarm and the Prime Minister did not act – that would be different.
    When they sing the national anthem – do they skip the part about standing on guard for thee?
    An investigation needs to be done when this is over – not to lay blame but to put in measures so this doesn’t happen again next year.

    C) Where is the testing? Weeks have passed. Nobody knows if the person who delivered my prescription to my front door is infected? The virus is still spreading and most likely by people who have it and don’t know it. If 10,000 tests a day are done, it will take 1,000 days or *three years* to do the population of Ontario. Assuming each person is only tested once.

    D) Why was there such a panic to bring the infected people who were in Wuhan China – out of the infected area – and re-distribute them around the globe? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep the infected people contained there where they could get treatment quickly?

    E) Where is the positive news? Which medical companies in Canada are working on a vaccine? Has Canada tested or approved hydroxychloroquine drug in the treatment of COVID-19?
    Let’s create a “million dollar prize” for a Canadian to be the first on earth to find a cure.

    Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Ford continue to answer the same questions every day with the same answer “we’re working on it, etc. etc.” Canadians will tire of this eventually and expect REAL answers and REAL action from our leaders.

    Here is a chance for Ontario and Canada to step on the World Stage and beat this scourge.