Sex-based COVID-19 data shows more men than women dying in Sask., but that's only part of the story

In more than 20 months since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Saskatchewan, hundreds of people with the virus have died. 

Now, for the first time during the pandemic, Saskatchewan has released data that breaks down the responses to COVID-19 by sex. 

It gives residents a better understanding of how the virus has affected the province and confirms that more males residents of Saskatchewan are dying from COVID-19 than female residents.

One expert is welcoming the release of the data, but says that it only provides a piece of the complex puzzle that is understanding the virus.

As of Nov. 6, 873 people with COVID-19 are known to have died in Saskatchewan. That's about 1.1 per cent of all COVID-19 cases recorded in Saskatchewan up to then.

According to the new data released by the provincial government, 365 of those deaths were females while 508 deaths were males.

That's a 58 to 41 per cent split between male and female.

The knowledge that more men are dying from COVID-19 isn't something new. It's been documented by the New York Times, The Washington Post and medical researchers across the world. 

But the release of the data is the first time that information has been confirmed in Saskatchewan.

The split by sex for deaths among male and female patients contrasts heavily with the number of cases and hospitalizations. The split in sex for cases sits at about 50-50 for male and female. In hospitalizations, the split is 48 per cent female, 52 per cent male. 

Unfortunately the data provided to CBC was a snapshot in time. There is no data on deaths in a month-by-month format. That means we can't tell if the arrival of different COVID-19 variants had an effect. 

But having the data is important, said Nazeem Muhajarine, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan. 

What's less understood is why more men die from the virus, although there are several plausible explanations. 

Scientists and researchers are still picking apart data to understand COVID-19, and it's not necessarily clear that a male or female has a different biological response to COVID-19.