A new study showed that Canada handled the key aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic response better in the first two years of the public health emergency compared to most major countries.

Researchers from the University of Toronto and Unity Health Toronto compared COVID-19 infection, death, excess deaths, vaccination rates, social and public health restrictions, and economic performance to assess the performance of the Group of Ten countries.

The countries selected, including Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, were chosen due to similarities in their economic and political models, income levels per capita, and population size.

Dr. Fahad Razaq, who participated in the study, also serves as the Director of the Ontario COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Table.

Razaq told CTVNews.ca: "The pandemic had a huge impact on all countries... and if we look at countries that are very similar to ours, we see that there are enormous challenges in all areas."

"Considering all of that, the pandemic burden we saw in Canada may have been less than many other countries, possibly linked to the engagement we had with things like vaccination and the restrictions we faced here."

While Canada was among the slower countries to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, it had the highest percentage of fully vaccinated people as of February 2022.

Canada’s per capita rate of COVID-19 cases per million was 82,700, the second-lowest rate among all countries included in the study, after Japan.

The COVID-19 death rate in Canada was also the second lowest among the countries in the study, at 919 deaths per million.

Compared to the expected number of deaths under nominal conditions, only Japan had lower COVID-19 death rates and excess deaths, despite the country's lower vaccination rates, fewer restrictions, and older population.

The alternative results identified by the study indicated that if the infection rate in France had occurred in Canada during the first two years of the pandemic, Canada would have witnessed about 8.75 million additional infections.

If American vaccination and COVID-19 death rates had happened in Canada, the number of Canadians vaccinated would be about 5.9 million fewer, and about 68,800 more could have died from COVID-19.

Razaq said: "This figure means that most of us probably have a friend or family member... who would have died in Canada in the past two years... and is alive today."

Public health restrictions in Canada were the strictest after Italy, and it experienced the most weeks of school closures. After that, the Canadian economy showed similar trends to other countries in inflation and public debt, but Canadian GDP growth was weaker.

Razaq said the important thing right now is for people to understand the impact of their actions, including following public health guidelines and vaccination, on infection and death rates in Canada.

While scientists are still learning about the condition, many long COVID sufferers report struggling to work and care for their families.

Razaq said: "We have paid for this over the past two years with real costs; with costs to individual freedom, restrictions on community jobs, and probably some economic costs as well."

"Was it worth it? That is the question people should ask themselves."

What people decide when considering this question may have implications for how they deal with potential future restrictions if cases rise again in the fall.