Cautious hope in La Loche as COVID-19 case numbers fall

Leaders in La Loche are cautiously optimistic the northern village, still Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 epicentre, is finally turning a corner on the outbreak.

Mayor Robert St. Pierre said data showing a slowing rate of infection is no reason to be lax, but he believes extensive testing and the effort of community volunteers are finally flattening the curve.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” St. Pierre said Tuesday. “But I don’t think we’re out of the woods.”

The village of roughly 2,800 people has had 167 cases of COVID -19 as of Thursday, which Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller speculated last week may be the highest infection rate in the country. Neighbouring Clearwater River Dene Nation has had 30 cases. Two elders who caught the virus in a long-term care facility have since died.

There are signs of hope. Recoveries have outpaced new cases in the far north for a week, even as the Saskatchewan Health Authority concluded door-to-door testing in La Loche, and the outbreak at the long-term care facility has been declared over.

Trailers and the local school have been turned into temporary shelter for people who need to self-isolate, which is helping box the virus into a corner, said Leonard Montgrand, Métis Nation-saskatchewan regional representative and La Loche Friendship Centre executive director.

“It’s not over by any stretch of the imagination,” Montgrand said. “But it’s more limited now. It (the virus) can’t find more bodies to infect.”

St. Pierre offered thanks to nurses and health-care workers, noting residents themselves were also a key part of the response.

Emergency operations centre team member Farris Lemaigre returned home to La Loche when the pandemic cut short an internship. Now she’s helping co-ordinate volunteers, many of them young people, who have stepped forward to help deliver food and other supplies to elders and the homeless.

It’s not easy, but a workload that was once “crazy” is now manageable, she said.

“It’s getting better,” Lemaigre said. “I feel like there’s more understanding between agencies and community members.”

At times, St. Pierre said he’s felt stigma against La Loche because of its high rate of infection. But that’s been overshadowed by the generosity of strangers, he said.

A crowdfunding campaign co-organized by the Saskatchewan Medical Association and the Student Medical Society of Saskatchewan raised almost $50,000. A Real Canadian

Superstore in Fort Mcmurray donated 160 boxes of frozen food.

Another 31 boxes came from the Métis Women’s Centre in Buffalo Narrows.

Desnethé—missinippi—churchill River MP Gary Vidal said an anonymous donor contacted him last week from Ontario, desperate to help northwest Saskatchewan. Vidal said the donor flew to Edmonton with about 10,000 masks and then drove to Meadow Lake. Vidal personally transported the supplies from there to La Loche and the Northwest Incident Command Centre in Beauval.

“He didn’t want any credit, or anything,” Vidal said. “He just wanted to help.”

Montgrand said the virus has highlighted historic inequalities in the region that need their own treatment.

On Tuesday, he said about 60 people were accessing temporary housing in the community, which illustrates a crowding issue that facilitated the spread of the virus. Some houses don’t even have clean running water, he noted. St. Pierre said a lack of housing and challenges with addiction made managing the response even harder.

I think we’re moving in the right direction But I don’t think we’re out of the woods.

Robert St. Pierre