The community of Thorncliffe Park has the highest rate of COVID-19 infection compared to all the adjacent neighbourhoods, yet it has managed to avert a far worse outcome, according to statistics from the City of Toronto.
Thorncliffe Park is considered particularly at risk during the pandemic because of the housing and employment situation of the people who live in the East York neighbourhood of Toronto.
Dr. Jeff Powis, the medical director of infection control at nearby Michael Garron Hospital, has spoken to residents who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 from Thorncliffe Park.
“It became quite clear to me that COVID-19 disproportionately impacts people with health inequities — things such as housing, income, and racialization,” he said.
Many of the people who live in Thorncliffe Park work in the health-care sector, the service industry or gig economy. Approximately 90 per cent of the population lives in rental apartment buildings, according to the 2016 census, some of which are social housing units.
The community is growing at twice the rate of the city’s average, owing in part to a high level of immigration. The rate of poverty is 45 per cent — more than double all of Toronto’s.