‘Stigma’ deters people from getting tested, says SHA official
Five new infections found in far north where 151 of 199 active cases are located
A stigma against individuals and communities is preventing some with COVID-19 symptoms from getting tested, a Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) official says.
Dr. Julie Kryzanowski, the SHA’S senior medical health officer, said Tuesday that she has seen people diagnosed with COVID -19 stigmatized, as well as health care workers, people from northern communities and Indigenous people.
Kryzanowski reminded people during the SHA briefing that anyone could contract the contagious disease and added health care workers take every precaution to ensure they do not spread it.
“We should be celebrating those who are heading into the testing centres,” Kryzanowski said. “Please don’t stigmatize them. It might be other people today, but it could be any of us tomorrow.”
Kryzanowski’s call for an end to stigma came a week before the start of the first phase of the SHA plan to resume medical procedures that were halted during the onset of the pandemic.
That first phase, which is set to begin next Tuesday, will be implemented in different ways depending on the number of cases in a given region, SHA chief executive Scott Livingstone said.
The province announced five new cases on Tuesday, all in the far north region, where 151 of Saskatchewan’s 199 active cases are located. That pushed the total number of cases to 568.
Two of the cases were identified as from the La Loche area, a northern village where most of the new cases over the last two weeks have been located. The other three were from the Beauval area, another northern community where an outbreak has been declared.
Eleven more recoveries increased the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 to 363 or about 64 per cent of diagnosed cases. There are also 11 people with COVID -19 in hospital, including three receiving intensive care.
As of Monday, the province reported 37,459 tests had been performed on 34,585 people, including 2,067 tests on 1,880 people in the far north.
“So what we’ve seen in the province over the past number of weeks is a decrease in testing numbers, and we’re working hard to understand why that is the case,” Kryzanowski said.
Part of the explanation is a decrease in respiratory conditions, she said, but stigma can be more of an issue in smaller communities where confidentiality can be compromised.
“Stigma divides and turns us against each other, but pandemics are an opportunity to remind us of how connected we are,” Kryzanowski said. “Compassion, care, unity and resilience makes everyone safer and stronger.”
Livingstone acknowledged that door-to-door testing is underway in La Loche, where the liquor store was closed this weekend to try to discourage socializing and violating social distancing rules.
The SHA is implementing a managed alcohol program in the village to help people with severe addictions. That program is modelled on one at The Lighthouse assisted living facility in downtown Saskatoon.
As part of efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the far north region, the provincial government imposed last month an unprecedented restriction on travel to and from most of the northern half of Saskatchewan.
The restrictions were further tightened to prevent travel between the 50 or so communities in this vast, sparsely populated region. “Non-critical” travel is banned in the entire zone, even though the outbreaks have taken place in the northwest.
The Saskatchewan Party government released a statement on Tuesday acknowledging the concerns of some northern and Indigenous community leaders and others who cannot access their properties in the zone.
The statement said the government is aware that the restriction poses a “substantial disruption,” but added that the ban on non-essential travel was intended to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
The government suggested the restrictions will remain in place while the province works with northern and Indigenous leaders to address their concerns.
An SHA update noted the COVID-19 effective reproductive number (ERN) for La Loche is 2.13, while for the rest of the province the ERN is 0.75
An ERN — the average number of people one person with COVID -19 is likely to infect — below 1 suggests the virus is being managed effectively.