11,182 tested in Hamilton for COVID-19

Haldimand-Norfolk has most confirmed positives in Ontario per capita

Hamilton has tested among the most number of people for COVID-19 in the province — 11,182.

At the same time, Halton has one of the lowest rates of testing per capita.

For the first time, numbers up to April 30 have been made public by ICES, an independent, non-profit research institute. Until now, even Hamilton public health couldn’t say how many people had been tested.

The study concludes Haldimand and Norfolk has Ontario’s greatest number of residents confirmed positive per capita, with somewhere between 121 to 170 people infected per 100,000 population. In comparison, Hamilton and Halton are between 51 to 90, while the lowest rate is in parts of Northern Ontario with between eight and 25.

The most marginalized — those with little eduction, low income, high unemployment and single-parent families — were less likely to be tested in Central West, which includes Hamilton, Halton, HaldimandNorfolk, Brant, Niagara, Waterloo, Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph.

The same is true for recent immigrants and those who identify as visible minorities.

The numbers extracted from the Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS) database is meant to “provide timely and meaningful data on COVID-19 testing in Ontario to decision-makers.”

It comes as Hamilton’s death toll climbed to 25 with the death of an 81-year-old woman

from the community on May 11. She is the seventh person from the community to die.

The rest have all been in outbreaks.

It’s also at the same time that Hamilton is completing provincially mandated mass testing in long-term care and the province is considering expanding testing in the general population

“We will be rolling out a plan with respect to that soon because it’s going to be really important as we open up parts of our economy,” said Health Minister Christine Elliott. “If there are any concerns … we can stop, reassess, make changes from there.”

The study which includes a McMaster University connection — Michael Paterson from the faculty of family medicine — also coincides with Health Canada authorizing the first serologic test to detect COVID-19 antibodies in the blood, which will help identify who has been exposed to the virus.

“We can use them to determine ... an estimation of how many Canadians are infected in different places or age groups or risk populations,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer. “At the same time, together with research organizations, ... we have to study the immune response to the virus.”

She added: “That will give us even more information about how effective are these antibodies at protecting someone against a second encounter of the virus and how long does immunity last for.”

But she warned that it’s premature to interpret the tests for an individual because “we don’t know enough about the immunology of COVID-19.” While Hamilton was among Toronto, Peel, Ottawa, Durham and York in having the highest number of actual tests, it ranks lower when it’s broken down per capita. The greatest number of residents tested per 100,000 population were in Peterborough, Hastings and Prince Edward counties, Timiskaming, Sudbury and Thunder Bay.

Halton has tested 7,560 people as of April 30, while Haldimand and Norfolk tested 2,447.

It puts Halton among the lowest tests per 100,000 population in Ontario at 875 to 1,250. The highest rates were 2,501 to 3,498. Hamilton and Haldimand-Norfolk sat at 1,751 to 2,000.

Haldimand and Norfolk was again near the top when it comes to the number of individuals confirmed positive for COVID-19 per 100,000 people tested — versus the earlier per capita figure.

The region had a positivity rate of 6,001 to 8,000, compared to the highest of 8,001 to 9,994 in Windsor-Essex, Waterloo, Peel, Toronto, York Region and Durham.

Driving Haldimand and Norfolk’s numbers is an outbreak at Anson Place, as the Hagersville long-term care centre makes up 103 of the 203 confirmed cases there.

Hamilton’s positivity rate was between 2,001 to 4,000, while Halton was 4,001 to 6,000.

In Central West, 30 per cent of those tested were age 65 and older with the median age being 52. Women were far more likely to get tested, accounting for nearly two-thirds.

Neighbourhood income didn’t appear to be a factor, although that could be skewed by outbreak locations.

Material deprivation — as the study called it — did appear to potentially matter, with the two most marginalized groups making up 35 per cent of those tested in Central West compared to 45 per cent in the least marginalized.

It was the same for “ethnic concentration,” with the two most marginalized groups accounting for 33 per cent of those tested, while the least marginalized made up 42 per cent.

Hamilton’s cases was in the mid-range in the study and now sits at 500 confirmed and probable as of Wednesday.