COVID-19 'hot spot' list left off 30 per cent of recommendations: advisory table

Members of Ontario's COVID-19 science advisory table say the provincial government only included about 70 per cent of neighbourhoods it recommended be designated hot spots.

Director Dr.Peter Juni told CBC's Ontario Today that the table was asked by the province to provide a list of postal codes it felt was at greatest risk.

The list it createdincluded about 20 per cent of Ontario's population, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area. ButJuni said when the government revealed the final designations, there were some neighbourhoodsthat the science table couldn't "replicate how they came on there."

In a statement,Rob Steiner, another member of the table, said they did not "determine the actual [postal codes] that the government would ultimately prioritize in its vaccine strategy."

K2V with second-lowest hot spot population

Earlier this month, the province released a list of 114 postal code zones designated as hot spots and announced the start of targeted vaccinations in those areasfor people aged 50 and up.

It later announced thatall adults in those hot spotswould be eligible to get vaccinated immediately.

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Included in that list arethe K1T, K1V and the K2V postal codes in Ottawa. In a memo from Ottawa Public Health, the first two postal codes contain what it'sidentifiedas high-priority neighbourhoods, but K2V has none.

The postal code, which includes Stittsvilleand Kanata, has the second lowest population of all the province's designated hot spots with just 2,435 people, according to the most recent Statistics Canadacensus in 2016.

The only other postal code with a lower population is L9E, the Milton-Halton region, with 723 people.The populations of K1V and K1T are between 35,000 and54,000.

Province defends decision

Both theNDP and Liberalsquestioned the province'slist of hot spots earlier this week.

For its part, the province said in a statement that hot spots were "identified based on Public Health Ontario data andcriteria including hospitalizations, outbreak data, low testing rates and deaths during the second wave of the pandemic."

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It said regions in the highest 20per cent were identified as hot spot communities, and regions in the top 30per centthat had significant low-income populations or faced other challengeswere also included.

The undertaking also applied "an anti-racism lens to ensure Ontario protects vulnerable communities," the province said.

The province defended including the K2V postal code, saying it had "44 per cent moreCOVID ICUcasesper 10,000 than the provincial average."

But given that the population of the K2V area is so low, CBC asked how much weight theprovince's calculations bearson its decision tolabel it as a "hot spot."

As of Friday evening, the province had not sent a response.