REGINA — Canada’s chief public health officer says a COVID-19 outbreak gripping Saskatchewan’s far north is an area of concern.
Dr. Theresa Tam says not only is the region remote, but it’s home to Indigenous communities.
Health officials in Saskatchewan say the novel coronavirus arrived in the Dene village of La Loche, 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, last month via travel from an oil sands work camp in northern Alberta. It has since spread through the community, making it the region in the province with the most active cases and triggering a lockdown there on non-essential travel.
Two elders living in a long-term care facility in La Loche have died from complications related to COVID-19.
During her daily briefing in Ottawa, Tam said a significant number of health workers are going door-to-door in La Loche to search out infections.
“People are taking it extremely seriously because these are more vulnerable situations,” she said Wednesday.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has also offered its support, she said.
Of the 512 cases in the province as of Wednesday, 152 are in the area categorized as the far north. Of the 25 new cases confirmed on Wednesday, 22 were in La Loche and another two were in the far north.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority on Wednesday declared a second outbreak at a hospital in the north.
It said a staff member at the Meadow Lake Hospital has tested positive for COVID-19 and the case is believed to be connected to community transmission. Earlier, the health authority reported an infected patient from La Loche had stayed at the Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert.
Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has called the northern outbreak alarming. He noted First Nations communities are more vulnerable because of overcrowded living conditions and a lack of hospital access.
The nearby Clearwater River Dene Nation and the English River First Nation have also reported cases of COVID-19.
Premier Scott Moe has said testing and contact tracing have been ramped up, so he expects the number of infections in the region to keep rising.
La Loche was not allowed to ease any COVID-19 restrictions under the first stage of Saskatchewan’s reopening plan that took effect Monday. Moe said he remains confident in moving ahead with the plan in the rest of the province, where there hasn’t been the same spike in infections.
