Nova Scotia trails other provinces in reporting deaths, but says it's making headway

The Nova Scotia government says it's getting caught up in providing death data to Statistics Canada, which an infectious diseases expert says is key to more accurately assessing the number of lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The province trails all others except Manitoba in providing such data to Statistics Canada. The federal agency uses that information to track excess mortality, which happens when the actual number of deaths exceeds what is the expected number.

Infectious diseases researcher Tara Moriarty has been pushing for the province to provide more timely death data.

Moriarty is part of a team at the COVID-19 Resources Canada project doing modelling to help members of the public better understand the COVID-19 situation. It receives funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada for its work.

Statistics Canada's excess mortality tracker only has data for Nova Scotia through Oct. 30, 2021. That predates the deadliest wave of the pandemic in Nova Scotia, which was spurred on by the Omicron variant.

"If decisions are being made about how to address COVID and other problems, if they're not being made incorporating what we know about excess mortality, then they're not being made based on a full set of information," said Moriarty.

Timely reporting of information is also helpful in countering misinformation, she said.

"You want the fastest, best reporting possible so that you can head off some of those inevitable claims that the [COVID-19] vaccines are killing people."

Over 40,000 excess deaths nationally

From March 2020 to mid-February 2022, Statistics Canada said there were an estimated 40,349 excess deaths across the country, or seven per cent more deaths than expected. It also noted "a new period of significant excess mortality" started in January 2022, which corresponds with the Omicron wave.

While COVID-19 is currently the major cause of excess mortality, Statistics Canada says other factors could include delayed medical procedures or increased substance use.

The Nova Scotia government said it has submitted death data covering up until May 2022 to Statistics Canada. It also said it would submit data covering up until mid-August by the end of this week.

"Staff at Vital Statistics have been working hard to clear the backlog and have made significant progress," said Health and Wellness spokesperson Khalehla Perrault in an email.

But it's unclear when this data will show up in Statistics Canada's excess mortality tracker. The agency did not respond to CBC News' request for comment by deadline.

The province says 642 people have died because of COVID-19, and 530 of those deaths happened during the Omicron wave.

In Nova Scotia, deaths attributed to COVID-19 capture both those caused directly by contracting the disease, and those in which COVID-19 was believed to be a contributing factor.

In cases where the cause of death is unknown or a person is suspected to have had COVID-19, tests are carried out to find evidence of the disease.

Moriarty said these approaches can still miss deaths. She estimated the actual number of Nova Scotians who have died from COVID-19 may be 50 per cent higher than what the province's figures indicate.

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