Spatiotemporal socioeconomic analysis of COVID-19 case rates and mobility in Toronto neighbourhoods

The COVID-19 pandemic has had drastic impacts on the life and livelihood of all Canadians, but research has found marginalized populations have been disproportionately impacted. To better understand the differentiating socioeconomic characteristics between neighbourhoods in Toronto, Canada that experienced excessive impacts on COVID-19 case rates, this study integrated hot spot analyses with a mobile device-derived mobility indicator measuring neighbourhood-level time away from home, demographic variables, and a marginalization index. Hot spots were in more materially deprived neighbourhood clusters where there were more essential workers and residents spent more time away from home. Short term policies to enable marginalized communities to follow government stay-at-home recommendations such as paid sick leave and improved access to testing could mitigate disproportionate impacts experienced in these neighbourhoods. These findings can be used for more equitable response in future public health crises, and support prioritization of resources to disadvantaged populations that were worst affected by COVID-19.