‘Physical distancing is a privilege by postal code,’ one doctor says of the dichotomy of infection rates between marginalized communities and wealthier neighbourhoods
This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.A airport airline limo driver waits for customers in a nearly empty Toronto Pearson International Airport during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Thursday, April 30, 2020. Rajinder Aujla, president of the Airport Taxi Association, estimates that about 20 drivers contracted the virus since April.
Public-health messages about staying home, which are aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, have largely ignored the realities faced by low-income workers, people who are homeless or other at-risk groups, said Andrew Boozary, a doctor who is executive director of health and social policy at University Health Network. He also works with Toronto’s Inner City Health Associates, a group that provides care to people living on the street and in shelters.
While the lowest-income group had 205 cases of COVID-19 and 34 admissions to hospital per population of 100,000, the highest income group had only 94 cases and 15 admissions.Neighbourhoods that had the highest concentration of immigrants recorded 194 cases of COVID-19 and 31 admissions per 100,000 people, compared with the ones with the lowest number of immigrants, which had 93 cases and 12 admissions.
“They tend to be lower wage, and they tend to consist of black and brown people,” said Dr. Siddiqi, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “Every time we see a long-term care worker on TV, it’s almost invariably a black woman.”
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