Why do people keep dying of COVID in Frontenac County?

Jeff Green | Apr 27, 2022

Over the pandemic, one of the major points of pride, and relief, in Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington has been our extremely low case and death rate from COVID compared to the rest of the world.

The numbers for the entire pandemic are still good in the region, about 27% of the provincial average, with 49 deaths. The average Ontario community has lost 3.8 people for every loss in KFL&A. There have been 12,700 in the Province as a whole.

Five months ago, however, there had been only 6 Frontenac County deaths, 18 months into the pandemic. This was at the time that the province as a whole, suffered its 10,000th loss of life. At that time, the KFL&A death rate was under 5% of the provincial average. The average Ontario community had lost 22 people for every person that had died of COVID in the KFL&A region, at that point.

Our death rate since mid-November is actually above the provincial average. We have lost 5 people for every 4 who have died in the rest of Ontario.

And this month, as we have been hearing that the extremely high case rate in the region has not resulted in significant increases in the rate of hospitalisation, but the death rate continues to jump up.

For the week ending on Friday, April 22, the death rate in KFL&A was 4 times the Ontario average, and of the two Ontarians who died of COVID last weekend, one was from our region.

When asked about the increasing death rate a couple of weeks ago, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Piotr Oglaza cautioned that it is hard to draw too many conclusions in a community of our size, where one of two deaths can have an outsized statistical impact. And it is certainly hard to compare the 200,000 KFL&A residents with 15,000,000 Ontarians, but the trend of high case and death rates in our region has persisted ever since we were the first Ontario community to be hit by the Omicron variant, and it is not settling down.

On Monday (April 25), our positive testing rate was over 20%, there were 15 people in hospital when there had been 10 a week earlier, with 4 in intensive care and 1 on a ventilator, in addition to the death over the weekend.

All of this is taking place as our vaccination program, one of the strongest in the province, seems to have stalled, and any protection that we had by mandatory masking and distancing measures is gone.

A new effort is underway now with the support of KFLA Public Health and its healthcare partners. It aims to convince the remaining 1/3 of those who are eligible to seek out a 3rd shot, and to convince all of those who are eligible to take a 4th dose of vaccine, as well as the small number who have not yet had their first and second shots to do so.

Aside from that, we are being told to monitor our health, stay home when sick, and avoid indoor gatherings where social distancing is not possible.

At the same time, our communities are indeed opening up. Concerts, card games, all manner of gatherings for young and old, are taking place now, and ramping up in May and June, as if the COVID numbers were moderate instead of severe.

After two years of being one of the most careful communities in the province, we seem to be letting it all go, and hoping for the best. The desire to get back to a normal social life is very strong, and we are jumping back in.

For most of us, it will work out, but we are abandoning the vulnerable in our midst, expecting them to take the extra cautions that the rest of us no longer have an interest in maintaining.

Six months ago, I wondered how hundreds of millions of people in the United States could pretend that COVID is over, and ignore climbing death rates in their country.

Now I know how they did it, because we are all doing it ourselves.

If we are lucky, our numbers will drop over the month of May, after peaking in a week or two. But that is what we are down to, wishing for luck and hoping that we don't lose too many more friends, neighbours and relatives before then.