While the Saskatchewan government works to try to reopen the province, COVID-19 numbers continue to climb in Saskatchewan’s far north, and anxiety is high among community members.
As of April 29, 11 new cases were confirmed in the La Loche area bringing the total number of cases to 57 with 52 active cases. Premier Scott Moe said during that day’s daily briefing that he is still quite confident in phase one of the Reopen Saskatchewan plan moving forward.
This is “totally contrary to reality,” said Rick Laliberte, Incident Commander with the North West Communities Incident Command Centre.
“Our outbreak is real, and it's happening, it's spreading to other communities, we're very anxious.”
There was nothing specific about northern communities or indigenious peoples in the provincial government’s reopen plan, which made it pretty clear to Laliberte where the government stands, he said.
“It had more dialogue about golf courses than you did about the North so we sensed where we sit on the priority scales.”
The fear for Laliberte has grown this past week as the virus has started to hit his home of Beauval. An employee at Beauval General Store has been in isolation since April 24 with the Saskatchewan Health Authority announcing April 29 that the employee tested positive for COVID-19. The store announced in a Facebook post on April 28 that they were already closed for 48 hours to clean and sanitize the store before the tests came back positive.
“Applicable employees have been directed to self-isolate out of an abundance of caution and will be tested if they experience symptoms,” said the post, with additional contact tracing already being done by public health.
Laliberte said he hoped that all tests would come back negative in connection to the employee but he is still afraid of what will happen if they don’t. The length people will go in order to get food and supplies will not help reduce those threats of COVID-19, he said.
“We need food security up here. Bring the groceries up here so people don't have to go out.”
Northern communities leaders have been working together to try and contain the spread of the virus, promote public health, and take care of their communities ever since the World Health Organization declared the pandemic back in March. Northwest communities are working together to share resources and information, Laliberte said, but there is only so much they can do when isolation, overcrowding, and other insecurities do not help contain the virus.
Three key factors highlight the gaps in service in northern communities, said Buckley Belanger, MLA for Athabasca; isolation from the rest of the province, a lack of services, and overcrowding within the communities. Where does that leave people dealing with a pandemic that is easily spread from person to person?
Municipal leaders are not taking this lying down, Belanger said.
“Alongside the health professionals, it was local leadership in the northern parts of the province that rose to the occasion, make no mistake about it. With no help from the province, they're kind of cheap their way out of this COVID-19 dilemma and this is why you have these outbursts.”
“We have a reality of four positive cases in the house of 15, and we're trying to isolate them and support them and it's very hard,” Laliberte said.
A public health order from Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Shahab on April 24 restricts all non-essential travel into the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District but that does not restrict movement within the region. People, and in turn the virus, keep moving within northern communities, Laliberte said.
Nearly 37,000 people live within the district and those are people who could spread the virus around to family and friends. This hits home even more when communities lose loved ones to COVID-19 which has now happened twice in the last week, including an elder from La Loche.
“That's the tragedy and that's the fear,” Laliberte said. “It's here but we have to support the families. We can't stigmatize the patients. They're innocent. Nobody intentionally gets sick.”
On top of everything going on with COVID-19, Laliberte also fears for people’s mental health. Physical distancing is important but this should not cause people to be socially distant.
“Physical distance is what we're saying but stay in contact with loved ones because it's very important to share that love and reassure people, especially in high anxiety. Just stay in contact with people, call your elders as often as you can to make sure they're safe.”
This would be the time when outfitters would head up north but Laliberte is begging people to stay away and let them contain the spread. Even with the travel ban, more cases are expected.
