How to Identify COVID-19 Hotspots in Urban Centers?

A new study looked at COVID-19 infections in 16 urban centers in Canada to understand the factors that contribute to concentration in geographic areas.

The hotspots of COVID-19 infections in Canadian cities across four provinces are linked to occupation, income, housing, and proxies for structural racism, according to a study published in Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had variable impacts across provinces and within cities, with some regions more affected than others.

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‘Identifying COVID-19 hotspots enables better allocation of resources, tailoring of policies, and implementation of strategies that curb local transmission.’

To better understand the factors contributing to the concentration of COVID-19 infections in geographic areas, researchers analyzed provincial surveillance data from January 2020 to February 2021 in Canada.

"Understanding the factors associated with geographic patterns of transmission within cities can help identify the populations and, specifically, the contexts with the greatest risks," write Yiqing Xia, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, and Huiting Ma, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, with coauthors.

There were 62 709 SARS-CoV-2 cases in BC, 15 089 in Manitoba, 239 160 in Ontario, and 215 928 in Quebec recorded in the 16 census metropolitan areas that were included in the study.

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They accounted for 81%, 57%, 83%, and 80% of all confirmed cases in each province, respectively. Researchers observed concentrations of cases according to social determinants of health, such as income, housing, essential work, visible minority status, and more.

They found that visible minority status was the social determinant of health that was important across all cities, with variations in the others.

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These hotspots are largely defined along social determinants related to occupation, income, housing, and proxies for structural racism.

The 16 regions included British Columbia – Vancouver, Kelowna and Abbotsford–Mission; Manitoba – Winnipeg; Ontario – Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo, St. Catharines–Niagara and Windsor; Quebec – Montréal, Québec City, Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Trois-Rivières.

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These findings are consistent with those of other studies from Canada as well as Sweden, the United States, and other countries showing higher rates of COVID-19 in racialized communities or diverse neighborhoods.

Geographic hot-spot initiatives, such as vaccination rollouts and access to mobile testing with wrap-around support for quarantine and isolation, effectively reach and meet the prevention and care needs of communities at disproportionate risk of COVID-19..

Geographically prioritized allocation of resources and services that are tailored to the local drivers of inequalities in acquisition and transmission risk offer a path forward in the public health response to COVID-19 infection.

Source-Medindia