Monday the great experiment began in Saskatchewan as the province entered Phase I of a five step Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.
The effort might be seen as off to something of a rocky start considering the province also announced its worst days in terms of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started, with 34 new cases. That number is significant but is mitigated somewhat by the majority of cases being in the far north.
That might be positive in terms of community to community infections, but it still illustrates rather starkly how quickly COVID-19 can spread in a community. The numbers could just as easily be Yorkton, Kamsack or Melville as La Loche and surrounding area.
That is where is it becomes incumbent on each of us to remain diligent in where we go, and what we do.
Just because the rules have loosened somewhat does not mean we need to hit the highways and travel all over the place. Certainly if there are good reasons, health care coming to mind, it is appropriate, but a shopping spree might be just as well done at home, and a visit to kids in Calgary or Ontario can likely wait until the infection curve is flattened in a more permanent way.
It is easy to look to government as our guides in this, and we do hope they listen to the best advice of science and follow it, as that is the only reasonable path to follow, but we as citizens play a critical role.
We need to do our best to protect our own health, the same reason we seek regular health checks, and should give up smoking, but it goes farther in the face of COVID-19. The disease has proven highly communicable, and in protecting ourselves we help protect family, friends, neighbours and the community. No one wants to be the person who an infection at a seniors’ home in the city is traced back to, given that the aged are far more likely to succumb to COVID-19, especially if other conditions already exist.
Obviously we cannot afford to live behind locked doors forever, not if we want a community we still recognize waiting for us the day we emerge from isolation, but the emergence from the cocoon safety of home isolation must be carried out with the utmost caution by each of us.
We want the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan to work so we can get to whatever will be normal in the months ahead, but its success will only be as good as the effort we put into maintaining social distancing and protecting each other as best we can.
