Montrealers, minorities top new COVID-19 poll

Montrealers are the Canadians mostly likely to know someone infected with COVID -19, and members of visible minorities are more likely than non-visible minorities to know someone who’s infected, according to a survey by Léger Marketing and the Association for Canadian Studies.

Montreal is Canada’s epicentre for COVID-19, with 23,915 cases as of Sunday.

On average, 24 per cent of Canadians say they know someone who has tested positive — six times more than the four per cent reporting on March 23.

Members of visible minorities are more likely to know someone with COVID -19 — with 31 per cent vs. 24 per cent. Immigrants who moved to Canada in the past 20 years are also more likely to know someone who’s infected than longtime residents.

“The poll is revealing it’s far more prevalent among those communities,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the ACS and chair of the COVID-19 Social Impacts Network.

In the U.S. Mid-atlantic region — which includes New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — 46 per cent know someone who tested positive, compared with the American average of 31 per cent.

Nationwide, Hispanics (49 per cent) and African-americans (37

per cent) are more likely than most Americans to know someone with the virus.

The findings are based on a Léger poll of 1,513 Canadians and 1,001 Americans by web interview May 15-17.

The results of an equivalent telephone poll would be considered accurate within 2.52 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.