A massive COVID-19 outbreak declared Wednesday by the Saskatchewan Health Authority is heavily impacting the North.
The Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation is entering a lockdown at 7 AM Thursday morning as it deals with four confirmed coronavirus cases.
Chief Peter Beatty said three cases are in Deschambault Lake and one in Southend.
He said one infected person also travelled to Pelican Narrows.
“Non essential travel will not be allowed, only essential services that the essential staff will be able to go through the checkpoint. And we will be allowing people to go for supplies on certain days from each community, minimum number of people who will get supplies and we will also be providing supplies to our community members during lockdown,” Beatty explained.
The lockdown is indefinite. As a precaution the First Nation has closed all schools until further notice.
“We’ve also shut down the schools. [We] made the decision to close down the school as of this morning and have the schools go for full sanitation which will take a while because they’re fairly big schools. And we will make a decision next week as to how we’re going to move forward with our education system but hopefully we can contain the outbreak to what it is right now,” Beatty said.
In the early onset of the pandemic, the First Nation experienced the first cases in the North with Beatty stating that similar procedures in the spring will be implemented this time in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
The Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority warns individuals who attended two recent funeral events in northern Saskatchewan that they may have been exposed to COVID-19.
The first event took place in Pelican Narrows on Sunday and Monday and the second in Waterhen Lake on Monday.
NITHA recommends anyone who attended either of these events and is experiencing symptoms to self-isolate immediately and phone the HealthLine 811 to arrange for testing.
Those who attended and are not experiencing symptoms should self-monitor for 14 days from time of exposure.
Officials in Stanley Mission have reinstated roadside checkstops due to area COVID-19 infections. This was effective at 3:30 this afternoon. Residents are allowed to leave for medical appointments, groceries and hunting. Leadership is encouraging residents to wear masks and practice physical distancing while out in public. Non-residents are not permitted to enter the community.
Public health officials declared the outbreak Wednesday and have traced back to a series of Full Gospel Outreach events in Prince Albert from September 14th to October 4th.
It is being declared an outbreak as it involves numerous individuals with close contacts from multiple areas across the province. Contact tracing involves more than 100 people in the province.
(With files from Fraser Needham.)