Statistics Canada calls it, “Excess mortality.” It refers to cases where there are more deaths during a period of time than what would be expected for that period. The organization says, over the course of the spring, from the end of March to the start of June, there were an estimated 7,027 more deaths in Canada than what would have been expected if there was no pandemic.

This was largely driven by the 7,575 deaths due to COVID-19 during this time. In June, the number of deaths in Canada returned to expected levels had there not been a pandemic, where they remained throughout July. While deaths due to COVID-19 continued throughout this period, they were much fewer in number.

Statistics Canada says Saskatchewan was one of six provinces where there was no clear evidence of excess mortality over the course of July. The number of weekly deaths in these jurisdictions was within the range expected if there was no pandemic.