Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Special caution
In an updated notice last December, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) considered “partially protected” people in groups at high risk of complications from COVID-19, whether they received two or three doses of vaccine or have already contracted the disease. To these groups, we must obviously add immunocompromised people. Casually, here are a large number of people who must be more particularly protected at a time when the authorities remind the public that they must “learn to live with the virus”. Recall that over the past seven days, the daily average of deaths has climbed to 19, an increase of 16% compared to the previous week.
The elderly
Faced with the Omicron variant and its BA.2 sub-variant, people aged 70 and over, with or without chronic diseases, are part of the risk groups. We are talking here about 1.2 million people, or 14% of the population of Quebec. To this number, the INSPQ adds people aged 60 to 69 who suffer from at least two chronic diseases.
Obesity
Obese people are defined as being among the groups at high risk for complications from COVID-19. According to the most recent data from Statistics Canada, which dates from 2018, 25% of Quebecers aged 18 and over fall into this category, or approximately 1.6 million people. Obesity is also associated with several chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension.
Cardiovascular illnesses
Among the chronic diseases considered a risk factor for complications from COVID-19 is cardiovascular disease. According to INSPQ data from 2016, just over 11% of the population is affected by such a disease, or approximately 730,000 people. The government advice, however, excludes people whose hypertension is under control.
Diabetes and others
Approximately 600,000 people suffer from diabetes in Quebec, or 7.2% of the population. Type 1 or 2 diabetes is considered a risk factor for COVID-19. Respiratory diseases excluding controlled asthma are also included, such as kidney and liver diseases. About 3% of the population would also be immunocompromised, i.e. just over 250,000 people. These are also part of the groups at risk.
Higher risks
The risks of dying from COVID-19 are higher in people with a chronic disease, indicates the INSPQ. It is 7.1 per 100,000 among those aged 20-59, 29.9 among those aged 60-69, 85.9 among those aged 70-79 and 334.7 among those aged 80 and over. For adequately vaccinated people, however, the risks decrease in each of these age groups.
Note: The figures presented in this text cannot be added. It is difficult to obtain the exact number of people who may belong to risk groups since many people may belong to several groups at the same time.