Canada: South Asian communities may have suffered most during pandemic, says study

An indicative study published in Canada has said that South Asian communities may have suffered more than others during the peak of COVID pandemic. The study, COVID CommUNITY – South Asian, has been published in Canadian Medical Association Journal Open.

The study said that South Asian communities in Greater Toronto area “suffered disproportionately from Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic.” This is in accordance withCovid-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF). The CITF was established by the Canadian government in 2020.

The study has been carried out by researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The researchers found that Regional Municipality of Peel had emerged as hotspot before vaccines were rolled out in 2021. Peel accounts for 10 per cent of the population of Ontario but it accounted for about 23 per cent of COVID cases in the area. Peel has a large South Asian Canadian community. City of Brampton was a hotspot. Peel and Brampton have largest concentration on Indo-Canadians in Canada

“One third of participants in this study were essential workers through the pandemic, and 20% lived in multi-generational households. These factors, along with lower socioeconomic status, are the primary determinants of the higher seropositivity rates in Peel’s South Asian community, instead of any innately biological cause,” said Sonia Anand, professor of medicine and epidemiology at McMaster’s Department of Medicine as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Dr Catherine Hankins, Co-Chair of the CITF said, “Understanding the factors that rendered any community or region a hotspot for Covid-19 will not only help us manage future pandemics. The insights can also inform Canada’s ongoing efforts to achieve more equitable health outcomes on a population-wide basis.”

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