Low-Income, Racialized Groups Hit Hardest by COVID-19

Volume 2, Issue No. 4

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .

 Our latest as of Thursday, July 30, 2020 

~  Toronto's visible minorities, Canada's demographic category that includes Filipinos, appear to bear the brunt of coronavirus infection, official data indicated. The release of a preliminary study on COVID's impact comes on the heels of the re-opening on Friday, July 31, of businesses and public spaces in the city, except for venues considered high-risk, which stay closed.

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IN TORONTO, CAPITAL OF ONTARIO PROVINCE

Visible Minorities Highly-Impacted by COVID-19

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

TORONTO - The coronavirus infection appears to have impacted more people among "racialized groups" or "visible minorities" in the city of Toronto than their Caucasian or white counterparts, new socio-demographic COVID-19 data reveal.

In findings from data collected from May 20, 2020, to July 16, 2020, Toronto Public Health has disclosed that:

• 83 percent of people with reported COVID-19 infection identified with a racialized group;

• 51 percent of reported cases in Toronto were living in households that could be considered lower-income; and

• 27 percent of COVID-19 cases were among individuals who live in households with five or more people.

"Frequently referred to as 'visible minorities' the term ‘racialized communities’ encompasses all people that are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour. Aboriginal peoples in Canada are sometimes excluded from this definition, but should not be," according to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.

Per the official definition of Statistics Canada, Filipinos are among the "visible minorities" or "racialized group" which also includes South Asian, Chinese, Black, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean, and Japanese.

TPH did not identify the COVID-19-infected residents by ethnic group. Nor did it say how many "83 percent of people" actually represents.

As of Thursday, July 30, Toronto has registered 15,377 confirmed cases and 1,150 deaths. A total of 13,772 have recovered. Ontario-wide, there are 39,075 confirmed cases; 2,772 deaths; and 34,906 recovered. In entire Canada, the figure stands at 116,000 (including 476 new) confirmed cases; 8,917 (including 5 new) deaths; and 100,000 recovered.

"The data was collected from people infected with COVID-19 and who answered voluntary questions on these topics.  These data are collected at the individual case level but being reported as overall data summaries and trends," TPH said in a press statement furnished The Filipino Web Channel on Thursday, July 30, 2020. 

"This ensures that data are not identifiable and remain confidential.  While there are some limitations with these data, they provide powerful insight into how COVID-19 is impacting our community," TPH explained.

According to TPH, earlier area-based findings suggested that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were more commonly reported among those living in areas with higher proportions of low-income earners and recent immigrants.  

"Certain racialized groups were found to be over-represented in areas with higher COVID-19 case rates, including people who are Black, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Latin American," it said. "Over-represented" appears to be a euphemism for having the most number of COVID-19 cases in those racial groups. 

“While COVID-19 has affected all of us, unfortunately it has had a greater impact on those in our community who face greater health inequities," said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health.

“In public health we have long known that it's your postal code, rather than your genetic code, that is the biggest driver of health," Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York), Chair of the Board of Health, commented.

"The social determinants of health – race, income, housing status – have long determined who gets sick, who lives, and who dies. This has always been the case: COVID-19 just exposed it for all to see," he added.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said “The data that has been collected and presented by Toronto Public Health will help us in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing us to help specific neighbourhoods that we know are being more severely impacted by COVID-19". (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).