`Significant' number are dying in their homes
Ontario is seeing a greater number of people dying at home from COVID-19, with an average of two per day, and some victims even in their 30s.
Over the past three weeks there has been 25 Covid-19-related deaths in Ontario homes, with 16 of those under the age of 60.
“This is a significant number that we've been involved with, compared to earlier in the pandemic,” said Dr. Dirk Huyer, Ontario's chief coroner and coordinator of the province's outbreak response team. “This is a difference in what we've seen from a risk factor,” he added.
In a press conference April 22, Dr. Huyer said that more people have died at home before being able to seek medical care for COVID-19 during the third wave.
“These people have not been able to obtain health care because the disease affected them so quickly and so seriously, leading to deaths in the community, which we did not see in the Office of the Chief Coroner in the first wave,” he said.
People who have died at home ranged in age from their 30s to their 80s.
According to Dr. Huyer, age has become the most significant predictor for COVID-19 cases and, “this is a younger group than we've seen before.”
During the first waves of the pandemic, those over the age of 60 and long-term-care homes were hit the hardest and were most at risk.
“We are still evaluating and trying to understand all of the circumstances,” he said on Thursday. “But certainly, it's notable in the face that this is a younger population... who are suffering serious consequences in the form of death in a quicker period of time than we saw in the past.”
All of those who have died at home have either been symptomatic, with either a positive test or had been in close contact with another positive case.
Although these people exhibited symptoms, they weren't serious enough for hospitalization, but then rapidly deteriorated. Dr. Huyer says that symptoms are individual to the person so it's hard to determine who needs medical care. “The vast majority of people who suffer from COVID-19 do not get seriously ill, but there are many that do.”
Dr. Huyer and his team are trying to determine what caused these people to deteriorate so quickly.
“I don't know, it could be related to the significant number that we have, because this is the highest number of cases infections that we've had in the pandemic.”