Hundreds more Canadians died in the earlyweeks of the pandemic than in the same period in previous years — but not all were directly connected to COVID-19, according to new figures released Friday by Statistics Canada.
The report compared weekly deaths from this year against the highest number of deaths for those same weeks over the past five years — looking for “excess deaths” that stood out from historical highs.
Between March 15 and April 25, British Columbia recorded 372 more deaths than in any of the previous five years for those same weeks — but just 99 of those were confirmed COVID-19 cases.
A similar trend was observed in Alberta. For seven weeks, death counts were consistently higher than the historical baseline — but only 40 out of the 402 additional deaths are connected to the coronavirus.
The excess deaths applied to both sexes and appeared to “disproportionately affect those over the age of 85,” said the report.
This suggests “other factors might be at play,” Owen Phillips, senior analyst with Statistics Canada’s vital statistics program, told CBC News. “Possibly variations in population structures or fluctuations in deaths from other causes.”
Similar studies in countries such as the U.S. and U.K. have also revealed hundreds, sometimes thousands of excess deaths amid the pandemic.
The report raises more questions than answers for Prabhat Jha, professor of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
“Are those missing COVID deaths? Are they heart attacks that went untreated and therefore died at home?” he said, noting preliminary studies that suggest patients are not getting essential care or going to the emergency room as much out of fear of contracting COVID-19.
“That will only be possible to determine with the cause of death, which I’m afraid is a few months away.”
Although statistics on COVID-19 deaths are updated daily, it typically takes Statistics Canada up to a year to gather data about other causes of death. The most recent data is from 2018.
The agency has told CBC it is hoping to release another analysis, looking specifically at the cause of deaths during the pandemic, in early July.
Missing data
The data has gaps. Statistics from New Brunswick and Nunavut were considered “too incomplete” to be included. Figures for Ontario, the second hardest-hit province, and Yukon weren’t available.
Statistics Canada says that’s partly because death registration is still “a paper-based process” in eight of the 13 provinces and territories — including Ontario. The agency says it hasn’t received any death statistics from Yukon since 2017.
Jha says it is crucial for Canada to understand these excess deaths before a second wave of the pandemic, but says answers likely won’t come easily due to what he describes as an archaic and decentralized data collection process.
“The whole of Canada and the provinces should really move to get a real-time system. In the U.K., the data are released every two weeks, including the cause of death information so you can get into these details,” he said.
Discrepancies in Quebec
The Statistics Canada tally also raises questions about the province hardest hit by the pandemic. Statistics Canada counted 25,185 deaths in Quebec in the first four months of 2020 — a lot less than the 28,140 compiled by the provincial statistics agency.
Statistics Canada says it’s aware its figures for Quebec are likely incomplete, but still sees a persistent trend of excess deaths higher than historical peaks for comparable weeks. It anticipates the figures will be better adjusted soon.
Jha agrees that Quebec’s provincial data is more reliable.
“Quebec data are the ones that I think are the most robust because they release them directly and they seem to show that almost all of the excess seems to be accounted for by COVID,” he said.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
