One of the recurring concerns we’ve heard since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Saskatchewan last month has been the need for more information.
Most days the provincial government has been holding daily press conferences, with Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, providing information on the disease.
Now let’s be clear: Shahab has done a pretty good job during this pandemic. We don’t know how many hours he’s worked in the past month, or how much the pandemic has taken out of him.
But you can expect there have been a lot of sleepless nights and trying days as he attemps to navigate this province through a pandemic. He doesn’t have a manual to work from. The last time we had something like this was the Spanish flu following the First World War, and we all know how much the world has changed in the past 100 years.
It would be nice, though, is Shahab or the Saskatchewan Health Authority would supply the locations of those who test positive for COVID-19.
The province groups locations into six regions: Saskatoon, Regina, south, central, north and far north.
As of April 1, there were seven cases in southern Saskatchewan, a total that obviously doesn’t include Regina. The frustrating part is the government doesn’t further specify where, leaving us to play the speculation game, which often adds to fear, uncertainty and false rumours.
Estevan had yet to record its first case.
The province’s decision to not release locations was harshly criticized earlier this week, when a woman from North Battleford was one of the first two people in Saskatchewan to die from COVID-19. In keeping with their practice, the government did not release the locations of the two deceased.
It was the family of the North Battleford victim, a 75-year-old widow, who released the details. Then they called on the government to start telling people the locations of those who tested positive outside of Regina or Saskatoon. They believe if she would have known that COVID-19 was in the community, she might have acted differently.
And while we should all be following guidelines when it comes to social distancing and crowd sizes and other restrictions, if we know that COVID-19 is in our community, it serves as a not-so-subtle reminder of what we have to do.
This wasn’t a few keyboard warriors, or perennial malcontents, or gossips and busy-bodies asking for more information. This was the family of a victim of COVID-19 saying that more information would have been beneficial.
If we had more concrete information, then you wouldn’t have problems like we had late last month, when the people responsible for the Canada COVID-19 map erroneously reported that Estevan had a presumptive case of the disease. Their mistake caused a lot of concern among local residents.
The lack of communication isn’t unique to Saskatchewan. Listen to those who live in other provinces. They’re asking for more details as well.
In a time like this, it’s important for the government to give us as much information as possible. Let us know where the cases are happening.
They’re concerned about privacy for those battling the disease, and that might be an issue in a village or a small town. But not in cities and larger towns.
If we know that there’s a case in Estevan, then that’s beneficial for the community.
We’re not asking for names or addresses.
We’re just asking for a little bit more help in keeping people safe.
