Ontario government slammed for naming Markham, Richmond Hill neighbourhoods COVID-19 hot spots

Thestar.com
April 15, 2021
Kim Zarzour

Is the Ford government playing politics when determining which COVID-19 hot spots are given priority for vaccines?

Conservative MPPs insists it’s not, but a CBC investigation shows residents in three York Region neighbourhoods in PC ridings are getting vaccinated even though other areas have higher numbers.

Three of five Ontario postal code hot spots, identified in a CBC investigation as priorities despite lower pandemic burdens, are located in York Region -- L6C and L6E in Markham and L4B in Richmond Hill.

All three are within Progressive Conservative ridings, but Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott, local MPPs and York Region Public Health say it was science -- not politics -- behind the decision.

According to the CBC data analysis, Ontario is giving the three York Region postal codes, plus two in Ottawa and Toronto, access to COVID-19 vaccines even though they are far less affected by the pandemic than other areas not designated hot spots.

The report led to questions about why certain neighbourhoods are being given preferential treatment.

On April 6, the province released a list of 114 high-priority communities -- 13 in York -- based on COVID-19 incidence rate, hospitalization and other indicators, York Region spokesperson Patrick Casey said.

York Region Public Health created its own, shorter, list after assessing local data, including incidence rates, hospitalizations, outbreak frequency and variant activity, narrowing it down to five initial communities (L4L, L6A, L4K, L4J, L3S) for York’s local high priority community vaccination strategy.

Casey said these areas are harder hit by COVID-19 due to variant activity, population density, multi-generational households and outbreaks in manufacturing plants.

“Over one third of York’s workplace outbreaks have been in L4K, followed by 13 per cent in L4L and 11 per cent in L4H, which has also driven our decisions to target the manufacturing settings in these areas for mobile vaccination clinics.”

But concerns were raised by provincial opposition leaders this week about the longer provincial hot spot list.

One of those on the province’s list, the Markham neighbourhoods of Wismer and Greensborough with L6E postal code, has a case rate of 1.85 per cent and hospitalizations and deaths of 0.88 per 1,000 people -- below dozens of postal code zones not designated hot spots, the CBC analysis showed.

L6C, a Markham neighbourhood bounded by Hwy. 404, 16th Avenue, McCowan Road and 19th Avenue, has the lowest cumulative rate of COVID-19 cases among all the hot spots and a death and hospitalization rate one-tenth that in the hard-hit Jane and Finch postal code.

Markham PC MPP Logan Kanapathi insists political influence did not drive the selections.

“These communities were identified based not only on high rates of COVID-19, but also outbreak data, research and analysis conducted by Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, low testing rates and sociodemographic barriers that may result in vaccine hesitancy,” he said in an email.

PC MPP Daisy Wai, whose Richmond Hill riding includes L4B, says it’s time to stop bickering and focus on beating COVID-19.

L4B covers the southeastern corner of Richmond Hill and reported higher-than-average positivity rates, but was ranked by research institute ICES 290th for case rates and 321st for hospitalization and deaths.

Wai said only one postal code in her riding was on the list, an indication this was not politics at play.

Many Richmond Hill residents are immigrants coming from countries much harder hit by the virus and they take health precautions seriously, she said.

“I’m receiving concerns from my riding, saying ‘we are surrounded by hot spots, what can we do? We are not given the privilege of being a hot spot and getting the vaccination sooner’,” she said.

“Politics cannot be played in this situation. We have to work together."

Rather than fight each other, Wai called on residents to fight the real enemy, COVID-19.

“It cannot be seen, it cannot be touched, it cannot be felt, but we are fighting it and we have to work together.”