By Canadian Press

Archaic paper records submitted by fax hold up real-time COVID-19 data

May 12, 2020 | 2:01 AM

OTTAWA — Health research experts say the archaic way Canada records deaths means the country could be missing out on data important to addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

When someone dies in Canada, a doctor typically fills out a death certificate on paper and faxes it to the provincial body responsible for processing those statistics.

That means it can take several years to get verified data about the number of people who die in a given year.

Laura Rosella, an associate professor of public health at the University of Toronto, says the system is not set up for immediate feedback about mortality.

That makes it difficult to find out if there’s been an increase in the overall number of deaths since COVID-19 struck, and use the data to inform immediate actions.

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Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada had already been trying to improve the process for overdose deaths, and plans to try to use the same methods to get more timely access to COVID-19 data.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2020.

The Canadian Press