Why is death rate soaring in Hochelaga-maisonneuve?

Public health officials visited Montreal North on Friday to talk about a massive testing effort now underway to screen people for COVID-19. There’s no doubt the pandemic is proliferating in the north end of the metropolis.

But another part of the city is not getting nearly the attention it deserves: the east-end borough of Mercier—hochelaga-maisonneuve.

For the past week, the borough has been reporting daily increases in the number of COVID-19 deaths that are in the double digits: it was 13 on Wednesday, the same on Thursday and a dozen on Friday. All other boroughs or municipalities on the island are observing daily ranges of three to seven fatalities.

For example, the number of people who died from COVID-19 climbed by four to 100 on Friday in Rosemont—la Petite-patrie, a more populous borough. By comparison, Mercier—hochelaga-maisonneuve has so far declared 178 deaths.

Before the pandemic, the Montreal public health department published several studies on the links between health and income. Almost 20 years ago, the Montreal Gazette reported that people in low-income communities in the east end lived, on average, a decade less than denizens of the West Island.

In Hochelaga-maisonneuve, more than 28 per cent of households live below the poverty line, according to a 2018 study. It’s not income itself that drives worse health outcomes, but the consequences of low income: a less wholesome diet (because families can’t afford more expensive fruits and vegetables), higher obesity (because of the consumption of more processed foods) and a higher smoking rate.

For the past two days, the Gazette has tried in vain for an interview with the Montreal public health department to learn more about Mercier—hochelaga-maisonneuve’s skyrocketing mortality rate from COVID-19. Clearly, officials have their hands full with the pandemic.

However, a senior health official not associated with the department agreed in an interview that the factors of obesity, a higher smoking rate and low income have all contributed to the borough’s rising death rate. The obesity and diabetes rates in the borough are much higher than in other parts of Montreal. The borough also has the dubious distinction of having the highest smoking rate in the city.

But that still doesn’t explain everything. Overall, it’s not young people who are dying in the pandemic — it’s mostly those who are in their 70s.

The full picture emerges only when one realizes the borough has more than a dozen longterm care centres (CHSLDS) and seniors’ residences. One of the worst-hit CHSLDS is the Grace Dart Extended Care Centre, where 88 people were infected with COVID -19 last week.

(More recent figures are not available, after Premier François Legault decided to suspend the daily updates on CHSLD outbreaks until the data could be “cleaned up.” Hopefully those updates will resume next week.)

Grace Dart is also where Victoria Salvan, a patient attendant, likely contracted COVID-19. She was the first health worker to die in the pandemic in Quebec.

As I reported on Thursday, the pandemic has preyed on society’s most vulnerable — the elderly and the mentally ill. I forgot to mention asylum seekers who crossed the border into Quebec on Roxham Rd. a few years ago, some of whom caught the coronavirus working unprotected in nursing homes. To that list, we must add the impoverished middle-aged and elderly.

It’s a good thing Dr. Mylène Drouin is focusing efforts on containing Montreal North’s outbreaks. But authorities cannot afford to drop their guard in Mercier—hochelaga-maisonneuve, where more than 1,400 people have contracted COVID -19.