About half of COVID-19 deaths in Windsor-Essex were premature: MOH

The local public health unit says that about half of the COVID-19 fatalities in Windsor-Essex can be considered premature deaths.

The region surpassed the grim milestone of 600 COVID-19 deaths earlier this week.

Since the pandemic began, 604 people have died due to COVID-19 locally, according to data from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU).

There's an increasing burden of COVID-19 in the region, based on a variety of factors including hospitalizations, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, the acting medical officer of health for the region, said at a board of health meeting on Thursday.

"We're seeing on average between two and four deaths per week in the health district," he said.

Nesathurai said he had WECHU's epidemiologist review those deaths, and about half of all of those who have died of COVID-19 locally were premature deaths.

The health unit arrived at that figure by setting premature deaths of men under 75 and 81 for women, a benchmark Nesathurai said was "arbitrary."

Nesathurai said deaths from COVID are concentrated in the urban core of Windsor and downtown areas of Leamington.

He noted a correlation between where the deaths were occurring and areas of "material deprivation" or lower socio-economic status.