Essential jobs make northeast vulnerable
Area posts nearly a quarter of active novel coronavirus cases in entire city
More than 1,000 residents of Calgary's upper northeast have active COVID-19 infections, by far the most in any geographic region in Alberta.
About 115,000 people live in that area of Calgary, but it accounts for nearly a quarter of active novel coronavirus cases in the entire city.
The region, which includes Calgary's northernmost communities east of Deerfoot Trail, has 880.2 active cases per 100,000 residents, compared to 305.8 cases per 100,000 across the entire city.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said that as someone raised in the northeast and lives there to this day, the torrent of cases feels personal.
Many people living in the region have working-class jobs at places like grocery stores, warehouses and continuing-care centres, he said.
“These are my neighbours. And I get frustrated when people say, ` We have to protect the economy at the expense of mental health because we have to protect the poor and vulnerable,' because many of my neighbours work in essential services,” Nenshi said.
“And when we say that we're keeping the economy open to protect them, we're also putting them at risk by making them go to work and deal with people who may not be isolating.”
According to Statistics Canada, the federal riding of Calgary Skyview, which largely overlaps with the city's upper northeast, has a recent immigrant population of 12 per cent, compared to seven per cent in Calgary as a whole. The riding also has a disproportionate population of visible minorities and multi-generational households.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed societal inequities, with some groups more likely to suffer infections and severe outcomes from the virus than others, says Stefan Baral, a Canadian researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md.
Baral co-wrote a preprint study that found Ontario COVID-19 case rates correlated to visible minority status and recent immigration.
But after adjusting for housing density and working conditions, those socioeconomic factors were found to be the drivers in the racial disparity in infections.
“This is Ontario, but do we really think it's that different in Alberta?” Baral said. “It really reinforces the deeper structural issues that predated COVID that are driving differential COVID, both incidents and mortality, in some communities more than others.”
While the upper northeast has faced elevated rates of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, the contrast has become even starker in the virus's second wave.
Active infections in the region more than doubled during November, and the area has consistently had disproportionately high rates of COVID-19 compared to other parts of Calgary in recent weeks.
A number of active outbreaks in Calgary are also within the region, including a newly declared outbreak Friday at Temple Fire Station No. 22.
Baral hypothesizes the inordinate spread is because those living in the community are more likely to continue working in public spaces, relying on public transit to bring them there, even as public-health restrictions are imposed.
“They're still out there, delivering Amazon, delivering food … Their exposures haven't really changed that much, in the context of a lockdown or not a lockdown, because they're considered essential workers,” he said.
“Then they live in really tight environments. We keep talking about social gatherings, but I think we need to go a little bit past that, because it implies people will stop going to social gatherings and that will fix the issue, but all of these data just keep reinforcing that these are people's living and working conditions.”
Calgary Coun. George Chahal, whose Ward 5 encompasses the hardest-hit northeast communities, agreed front-line work and multi-generational households were contributing factors to the spread.
He said more robust contact tracing, including through Alberta potentially adopting the federal COVID Alert app, could go a long way in combating spread.
“It's a concern not having the ability to have proper contact trace, and the app as well to know who you may have run into who has the virus so we can take appropriate and quick action,” Chahal said.
“( We also need to) make sure we are getting the right communications and messaging out to residents through their various multilingual languages to ensure that they're well aware of the restrictions and we can be out to educate and enforce the measures that are in place.”
Jay Chowdhury is a northeast Calgary resident who spent 47 days in hospital this spring with COVID-19, including 25 days in a coma.
He said he believes one of the biggest problems is people dismissing the virus because they don't know anyone who has been seriously impacted by it.
“There are a lot of people who say, `I only believe what I see,' but I think that's wrong. You shouldn't need to see a positive patient to believe,” Chowdhury said. “There is a denial factor.”
Chowdhury and Chahal both stressed Calgarians should not stigmatize or discriminate against businesses or individuals in the city's northeast.
“These are just like all other Calgarians,” Chahal said.
Baral said actions to protect vulnerable populations from COVID-19 need to address structural issues. He said governments could establish isolation hotels for people to go to when they can't safely quarantine at home and provide more accessible financial aid for those who need to take work off.
“It is a global truth at this point that this virus is not affecting everybody equally, but we're still acting like it is,” he said. “We're not responding with more resources to those who have been harder hit.
“Ideally, we can transition to doing more for people who need more.”