scholarly journals A disproportionate epidemic: COVID-19 cases and deaths among essential workers in Toronto, Canada

Author(s):  
Amrita Rao ◽  
Huiting Ma ◽  
Gary Moloney ◽  
Jeffrey C Kwong ◽  
Peter Juni ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTShelter-in-place mandates and closure of non-essential businesses have been central to COVID-19 response strategies including in Toronto, Canada. Approximately half of the working population in Canada are employed in occupations that do not allow for remote work suggesting potentially limited impact of some of the strategies proposed to mitigate COVID-19 acquisition and onward transmission risks and associated morbidity and mortality. We compared per-capita rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths from January 23, 2020 to January 24, 2021, across neighborhoods in Toronto by proportion of the population working in essential services. We used person-level data on laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 community cases (N=74,477) and deaths (N=2319), and census data for neighborhood-level attributes. Cumulative per-capita rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths were 3-fold and 2.5-fold higher, respectively, in neighborhoods with the highest versus lowest concentration of essential workers. Findings suggest that the population who continued to serve the essential needs of society throughout COVID-19 shouldered a disproportionate burden of transmission and deaths. Taken together, results signal the need for active intervention strategies to complement restrictive measures to optimize both the equity and effectiveness of COVID-19 responses.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zain Chagla ◽  
Huiting Ma ◽  
Beate Sander ◽  
Stefan Baral ◽  
Sharmistha Mishra

Importance: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOC) across North America has been associated with concerns of increased COVID-19 transmission. Characterizing the distribution of VOCs can inform the development and implementation of policies and programs to address the prevention needs of disproportionately affected communities. Objective: We compared per-capita rates of COVID-19 cases (overall and VOC) from February 3, 2021 to March 10, 2021, across neighborhoods in the health regions of Toronto and Peel, Ontario, by proportion of the population working in essential services and income. Design: Descriptive epidemiological analysis, integrating COVID-19 surveillance and census data. Per-capita daily epidemic curves were generated using 7-days rolling averages for cases and deaths. Cumulative per-capita rates were determined using census-reported population of each neighbourhood. Setting: The study setting was the city of Toronto and the region of Peel (the City of Brampton, Mississauga, and Caledon), Canadas largest cities with a combined population of 4.3 million. This area of Canada has had one of the highest incident rates of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. Participants: We used person-level data on laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 community cases (N=22,478) and census data for neighborhood-level attributes. Exposures: We stratified neighbourhood using dissemination areas which represent geographic areas of approximately 400-700 individuals, into tertiles by ranking the proportion of population in each neighbourhood working in essential services (health, trades, transport, equipment, manufacturing, utilities, sales, services, agriculture); and the per-person equivalent household income. Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): The primary outcomes were laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases overall and VOC positives by neighbourhood. Results: During the study period, VOC cases emerged faster in groups with lowest income (growth rate 43.8%, 34.6% and 21.6% by income tertile from lowest to highest), and most essential work (growth rate 18.4%, 30.8% and 50.8% by tertile from lowest tertile of essential workers to highest tertile of essential workers). Conclusions and Relevance: The recent introduction of VOC in the large urban area of Toronto has disproportionately affected neighbourhoods with the most essential workers and lowest income levels. Notably, this is consistent with the increased burden of non-VOC COVID-19 cases suggesting shared risk factors. To date, restrictive public health strategies have been of limited impact in these communities suggesting the need for complementary and well-specified supportive strategies including vaccine prioritization to address disparities and overall incidence of both VOC and non-VOC COVID-19.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-95
Author(s):  
John Marcell Rumondor

This research aims to understand the influenceof foreign investment, international trade, Gross Domestic Product per capita, agriculture and urbanization of the working population. Country used as an object in this research is Indonesia. This research uses the method of analysis Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and the multiple linear regression analysis method. Research period are from 1997 – 2012. The results showed that the international trade, Gross Domestic Product per capita, agriculture and urbanization have significantpositive influenceon the population work in Indonesia, but foreign investment has no significanteffect on the working population in Indonesia.


Author(s):  
Belinda Jessup ◽  
Tony Barnett ◽  
Kehinde Obamiro ◽  
Merylin Cross ◽  
Edwin Mseke

Background: On a per capita basis, rural communities are underserviced by health professionals when compared to metropolitan areas of Australia. However, most studies evaluating health workforce focus on discrete professional groups rather than the collective contribution of the range of health, care and welfare workers within communities. The objective of this study was therefore to illustrate a novel approach for evaluating the broader composition of the health, welfare and care (HWC) workforce in Tasmania, Australia, and its potential to inform the delivery of healthcare services within rural communities. Methods: Census data (2011 and 2016) were obtained for all workers involved in health, welfare and care service provision in Tasmania and in each statistical level 4 area (SA4) of the state. Workers were grouped into seven categories: medicine, nursing, allied health, dentistry and oral health, health-other, welfare and carers. Data were aggregated for each category to obtain total headcount, total full time equivalent (FTE) positions and total annual hours of service per capita, with changes observed over the five-year period. Results: All categories of the Tasmanian HWC workforce except welfare grew between 2011 and 2016. While this growth occurred in all SA4 regions across the state, the HWC workforce remained maldistributed, with more annual hours of service per capita provided in the Hobart area. Although the HWC workforce remained highly feminised, a move toward gender balance was observed in some categories, including medicine, dentistry and oral health, and carers. The HWC workforce also saw an increase in part-time workers across all categories. Conclusions: Adopting a broad approach to health workforce planning can better reflect the reality of healthcare service delivery. For underserviced rural communities, recognising the diverse range of workers who can contribute to the provision of health, welfare and care services offers the opportunity to realise existing workforce capacity and explore how ‘total care’ may be delivered by different combinations of health, welfare and care workers.


Economies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Romagnoli ◽  
Luigi Mastronardi

This study analyzes the links between Italian inner area municipalities’ expenditure and per capita incomes, considered as a proxy of well-being. Inner areas are territorial contexts characterized by a significant distance from the centers, the main supply poles of essential services. Following a top-down approach, the paper at first demonstrates the existence of a global convergence process in per capita incomes, with a faster rate of convergence in inner areas with respect to centers; then, attention is focused on local administrations’ policies and their impact on incomes in Italian inner areas. The paper gives a twofold contribution to the debate about the implementation of territorial cohesion policies: (a) on one side, public expenditure data are considered for the first time in an econometric model regarding Italian inner areas; (b) on the other side, the reference territorial subdivision is the lowest possible, giving the opportunity to investigate the changes in well-being at the finest scale.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (8) ◽  
pp. 118-124
Author(s):  
E. A. Kashekhlebova

The sphere of social and labor rights has undergone a large-scale transformation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictive measures. Almost all enterprises and organizations during the period of restrictive measures were forced to switch to a remote (remote) mode of operation. Some, and sometimes all, employees of organizations were forced to perform their labor function, stipulated by an employment contract, at home.At the same time, before the introduction of the above-mentioned forced measures and subsequent amendments to the labor legislation regarding the regulation of the work of “homeworkers”, there were no provisions in the domestic labor legislation that would allow establishing legal regulation of the emergence of this kind of relationship between an employee and an employer.In December 2020, the Federal Law “On Amendments to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation regarding the regulation of remote (remote) work and temporary transfer of an employee to remote (remote) work on the initiative of the employer in exceptional cases” was adopted.This article is devoted to a conceptual review of the amendments to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation adopted in 2020, aimed at establishing the regulation of remote (remote) work, as well as the procedure for temporary transfer of an employee to remote (remote) work on the initiative of the employer in strictly exceptional cases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-156
Author(s):  
T. Pisоchenkо ◽  
◽  
S. Agafonova ◽  

Annotation. Introduction. The author investigates in his article the main drawbacks of the Ukrainian legislative base that may cause difficulties for employers and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. While reading this article you will find several solutions on how to limit salary expenses of you company or firm, lead in remote or part-time working schedule on the enterprise and grant employees unpaid leave. The article also deals with the procedure of the paper work that should be done while processing sick leaves of the people who suffered from the COVID-19 disease or contacted with the COVID-19 patients. Purpоse. The purpose of this article is to identify the shortcomings of labor legislation during quarantine and restrictive measures related to the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Consider and analyze new approaches in building labor relations between employees and employers in the face of rising unemployment and the introduction of telework. Results. The pandemic covered 210 countries and territories. Studies have shown that tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. According to various social survey centers, every third company surveyed optimized the payroll, sent employees to remote work with a reduction in wages, reduced staff and transferred some workers to contracts. Today it is possible to exercise the right to receive partial unemployment benefits for insured workers who have lost part of their wages due to forced downtime or reduction of working hours due to quarantine. Cоnclusiоns. Today, much responsibility lies with the subjects of labor relations, much depends on the employees and employers, on their responsibility and charity. State aid to those categories that were more vulnerable during the crisis remains important. Financial assistance can take the form of grants and grace periods on outstanding loans – in order to support and overcome the profitability crisis. Keywоrds: labor relations; pandemic; wages; COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Andrew Camilleri ◽  
Samantha Pace Gasan ◽  
Andrew Azzopardi

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a global health pandemic, due to the spread of a novel coronavirus, later named “Covid-19”. The spread of Covid-19 led to social isolation, distancing and a number of restrictive measures in Malta.  The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of Covid-19 and the subsequent restrictive measures on persons with disability and their caregivers and families in Malta. Using thematic analysis, the study found that a variety of impacts ranging from a sense of isolation, lack of essential services being provided, additional difficulties encountered at the place of work and education and measures that were not sufficiently tailored for persons with disability issued by public health authorities. Underlying the additional difficulties brought about by Covid-19, structural difficulties to access essential services as well as ignorance from policy makers and politicians and the added “vulnerable-ization” of persons with disabilities were found to be highly impacting factors that pervade the experience of persons with disabilities and their caregivers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
Andrii Ramskyi

The article examines the risks of deepening poverty and income inequality that arise from global challenges of population aging, job losses due to shrinking sales markets, trade wars, long-term quarantine and compliance with the safe distancing of people as part of restrictive measures against the spread of COVID–19, the nature of employment (remote work, temporary reduction of labor migration), and other norms in the fight against the dangerous contagious disease. Given the facts that the prevention of spreading and localization of dangerous diseases, their treatment, and the rehabilitation of patients affect all segments of the population, have negative effects on all areas of people’s lives and also add to the increase of socio-economic risks, including poverty and inequality, the study of this issue is extremely relevant. The financial implications of these challenges for many households lead to falling real incomes, and an increase in costs and debts, and their non-repayment, which generally cause sudden poverty and increasing inequality of income and property. Purpose of the article: To investigate the risks of poverty, including sudden poverty, the inequality of household incomes amid the fight against the COVID–19 pandemic, and it identifies ways to overcome them. Methods: A review of the scientific literature, a presentation of statistical data, and statistical research. Findings & Value added: As a result of research, a list of new risks of poverty and income inequality is outlined, and preliminary assessments of the consequences of the COVID–19 for households are summarized; signs of short-term loss are generalized; the solvency of households as a possible precondition for sudden poverty is evaluated; cross‑country comparisons of poverty risk are made; the scheme of state aid to improve living standards of people during the outbreak of new dangerous diseases in the EU and Ukraine is generalized; ways to overcome poverty and income inequality are substantiated to restore the resilience of financially vulnerable households and ensuring the development of human capital.


2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (10) ◽  
pp. 2221-2231 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. M. Menezes ◽  
K. Georgiades ◽  
M. H. Boyle

BackgroundMany studies have reported an increased incidence of psychiatric disorder (particularly psychotic disorders) among first generation adult immigrants, along with an increasing risk for ethnic minorities living in low-minority concentration neighborhoods. These studies have depended mostly on European case-based databases. In contrast, North American studies have suggested a lower risk for psychiatric disorder in immigrants, although the effect of neighborhood immigrant concentration has not been studied extensively.MethodUsing multi-level modeling to disaggregate individual from area-level influences, this study examines the influence of first generation immigrant status at the individual level, immigrant concentration at the neighborhood-level and their combined effect on 12-month prevalence of mood, anxiety and substance-dependence disorders and lifetime prevalence of psychotic disorder, among Canadians.ResultsIndividual-level data came from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 1.2, a cross-sectional study of psychiatric disorder among Canadians over the age of 15 years; the sample for analysis wasn=35 708. The CCHS data were linked with neighborhood-level data from the Canadian Census 2001 for multi-level logistic regression. Immigrant status was associated with a lower prevalence of psychiatric disorder, with an added protective effect for immigrants living in neighborhoods with higher immigrant concentrations. Immigrant concentration was not associated with elevated prevalence of psychiatric disorder among non-immigrants.ConclusionsThe finding of lower 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorder in Canadian immigrants, with further lessening as the neighborhood immigrant concentration increases, reflects a model of person–environment fit, highlighting the importance of studying individual risk factors within environmental contexts.


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